


Fukurodani Babysitters Club

by runningfromrealitytoanime



Category: Haikyuu!!, 学園ベビーシッターズ | Gakuen Babysitters
Genre: M/M, Multi, Other, akaashi and tobio are brothers, akaashi is whipped for bokuto, alternate universe - gakuen babysitters, iwaizumi and oikawa are babies!, loads of fluff, suga as a babysitter, they are super adorable!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:01:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 43,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25110547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runningfromrealitytoanime/pseuds/runningfromrealitytoanime
Summary: When Keiji and Tobio lose their parents in a plane crash, they were taken in by the Headmaster of the prestigious Fukurodani group under one condition; Keiji has to be the fulltime babysitter of the Fukurodani Babysitters club.Cute babies are available, chaos ensues, Akaashi is whipped for a certain owl.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Kita Shinsuke/Ushijima Wakatoshi, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 67
Kudos: 274





	1. Meet the Akaashi siblings

**Author's Note:**

> We need a little fluff in our life, don't we? I had an idea for Akaashi and Tobio being brother's and after seeing all the cute edits of our little Haikyuu kiddos as babies, I was just dying to write something like this for them! I'm not sure how the plot is going to go for this but will try and update at least once a week.

Akaashi Keiji stood in front of the large map for Fukurodani Academy, his eyes already hurting as he tried to squint at the board. He didn’t understand why did private academies had to be so freaking huge and just make his brains want to rot, his head hurting from thinking where he had to be in the next ten minutes lest he was going to face the wrath of Headmaster Ukai.

“Where is it,” he muttered as he felt a tug on his pants. Keiji turned to see his younger brother Tobio holding onto him, his little eyes now blown with fear for venturing into a new place as some girls passing by giggled at the sight. Keiji quickly took the chance in asking them where the nursey was, the girls giggling even further as the transfer student silently cursed himself for sticking out like a sore thumb, thanking them before reaching out to his brother.

“Tobio, are you tired? Do you want me to carry you to the nursery?” he asked as the little boy grunted. Tobio may only be three years old but his glare was enough to even send full-grown adults running in the opposite direction. Keiji himself wasn’t the most expressful person in the world, most of the time sporting a poker face that his parents often said could earn him a Guinness World record for “Prettiest male poker face.”

His heart dropped as he thought about his parents, Tobio squirming slightly in his arms as he gazed up at the clouds.

It had only been two months ever since their parents died in a plane crash. The Akaashi family had always been one of free spirits, their parents flying all over the world to document wonders and historical moments. Keiji’s parents were journalists who didn’t know how to plant their feet on the ground, often leaving their teenaged son to his own devices even from the young age of eight all the way to when his brother was born. He doubted Tobio would even remember much about them since they had upped and left for Hawaii the moment Tobio had been born so his mother could relax (Keiji had a field day trying to change his diapers and nearly passing out from the stench of his poop.”

That didn’t stop him from loving him all the same.

“Come on, Tobio, let’s go meet your new friends. Nii-chan has to go to class,” Keiji smiled down at the younger boy as Tobio murmured, “Me no wanna pway.”

“Tobio…” Keiji sighed as he ran a hand through his younger brother’s hair. This would be the first time the boy would actually be going to a nursery and with his social interactions being limited to just Keiji, it didn’t help Tobio any more in having to move into a new environment on such short notice.

“Neh, if you play with your friends well, Nii-chan will bring you to play some volleyball later, how about that?” Those words made the small boy’s eyes twinkle with excitement, the word ‘volleyball’ being the magic word to placate him as he nodded silently, Keiji praying Tobio would remain as calm as he was now as they finally made their way to the nursery.

_The doorbell rang as Keiji stirred from his spot on the couch, his back creaking as he tried to move a sleeping Tobio off him. when the toddler didn’t make an effort to move, he gently scooped him up in his arms and carried him with him to the genkan, peeking through the peephole to see a man standing outside, a smile on his face as he called, “Excuse me, is this the home of Akaashi Keiji and Tobio?”_

_Keiji sighed as he opened the door, the man continuing to smile at him as he gave him a low bow._

_“Hello, my name is Takeda Ittetsu. I’m the butler to Headmaster Ukai Ikkei of Fukurodani Academy. First of all, I would like to give you my condolences on the loss of your parents,” the man said as he bowed low, Keiji groaning internally at how many times people had been doing this to him for the past month. Tobio had found it rather amusing to see people sobbing and trying to give them hugs, something he hadn’t received all this while._

_“I would like to extend an invitation to you to stay at the Ukai residence until the day of your graduation. There will be arrangements to shift your things to the residence if you agree but there is a condition the Headmaster wishes for you to fulfil.” The twinkle in the man’s eye had made Keiji gulp as he laid out the conditions, Keiji’s metallic blue eyes widening as he thought of just what kind of devils reside in the nursery that no person wanted to deal with them even on a paid basis._

“Fukurodani Babysitters Club,” he murmured as he stood outside of the glass door that had stickers of crows and owls plastered all over it. he could hear the shouts of several children screaming and laughing coming from inside followed by a frantic yell as someone tried to chase them. Keiji peeped inside to see a silver-haired man trying to chase a literally ball of sunshine around, the boy doing little to stop as he chased a pair of identical twins around, the boys screaming and laughing as the man tried to balance the two babies perched on his back and on his front.

“Shouyou, please stop running!” the man wailed as the sunshine yelled, “Me gonna catch you, Tsumu! Samu!”

“Shou-chan!” they yelled as Keiji sighed, Tobio quirking an eyebrow that seemed to scream, “What the hell is wrong with these idiots?” as his older brother adjusted himself before taking a breath.

“Ready to meet them?’ he asked as Tobio scowled, Keiji moving to knock on the door as the silver-haired narrowly stopped himself from tripping over Shouyou.

“Gwah! They’re here!” the man yelled as he quickly scooped up the running children in his arms. The boys squirmed and kicked as he hissed at them to behave before setting them down, straightening his pink apron as he smiled, “Come in!”

“Pardon the intrusion,” Keiji muttered as he stepped into the room, the kids moving to hide behind the silver-haired man as the man smiled. He looked like an angel, a beauty mole on his cheek and a cheeky smile on his face. He even had a cowlick swaying on top of his silver locks (probably makes a good child detector, Keiji thought) as he smiled, “Welcome Akaashi-kun! Wait, both of you are Akaashi so I should be calling you Keiji-kun then? I’m Sugawara Koushi, the official babysitter of Fukurodani Nursery. As you can see, these kiddos can be a handful.” The kids quivered behind him as the man began to emit an aura that screamed at them to behave, even the ball of sunshine snapping his little mouth shut as Keiji bowed.

“I’m Keiji. This is my little brother, Akaashi Tobio. Tobio, say hi,” Keiji whispered as Tobio moved his head in the other direction as Suga beamed, “Alright, kids! How about we start with the name train! Everyone, get into positions!” The three kids from earlier cheered as the stepped forward, big grins on their faces as Suga began clapping his hands.

“Here comes the naming train, choo-choo-choo!” they sang, Keiji’s heart-melting at how cute they were as they shouted out their names.

“Hinata Shouyou-chan!” to this, the ball of sunshine threw his hands up and grinned, the smile on his face bright enough to light up even the darkest of spaces as he yelled, “Here!”

“Kita Osamu-chan!” the twin with his hair parted to the left, Keiji barely able to tell the difference until now as the twin nodded, “Here.”

“Kita Atsumu-chan!” this time, the twin with his hair parted to the right beamed as he stepped forward to take his brother’s hand, “Me here!”

“Iwaizumi Hajime-chan!” they chanted as the baby on Suga’s back jostled slightly in his sleep, Keijii making out the outlines of a Godzilla onesie as they chanted the last name, “Oikawa Tooru-chan!” The baby in front of Suga’s chest gave a gurgle, his brown hair eyes opening to fix onto Keiji with amusement as they all shouted, “And everyone here is doing well!” Keiji had to stop himself from laughing at the sight when he checked the clock to see that his classes were starting soon.

“Sorry, Tobio. Nii-chan has to go to class now so play well with them, alright?” Keiji whispered hurriedly to his brother before setting him on the ground. The younger boy didn’t resist, much to his surprise as he set him to his feet, Tobio frowning as usual as Keiji quickly bowed and excused himself to his classroom.

Keiji found his classes to be surprisingly ok. For a rich kids school, the kids here didn’t seem as obnoxious or proud as he would have thought. In fact, most of them were rather nice, with him being able to make some friends within lunchtime as a couple of guys grouped themselves around his table, ready to introduce themselves. Some of the girls were even giving him wistful looks from across the room, Keiji wishing they would stop doing that since he didn’t have the time for dating at the moment.

No one seemed to question about his strange circumstances of moving to a new school towards the end of the school year which he was grateful for since he didn’t want to have to go through explaining that he was an orphan now with a little brother in tow. Once classes were done, he packed his bags and raced to the nursery, ready to start his duties as a babysitter when he heard a wail coming from inside.

“Hinata boke! Hinata boke!” a familiar voice yelled as Keiji sighed, moving to push the door aside to see Hinata wailing his eyes out. His cheeks were red from crying as he rubbed his eyes. Tobio was standing further away, his eyes blown wide with anger as Hinata sobbed, “Tobio baka! Baka!”

“Come on you two, please don’t call each other names,” Suga begged as Oikawa began to cry. Osamu and Atsumu just watched the exchange with amusement as Keiji moved to stand behind his brother, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Tobio, why did you make him cry?” Tobio immediately shuddered as he recognised his brother’s presence. Keiji was able to intimidate someone if he wishes to as he gulped.

“He called me dummy for not wanting to play games. Me wanna play volleyball!” Tobio wailed as Hinata shouted, “Tobio boke! Lame! We don’t have volleyball! We can’t play!”

“Boke, I have volleyball! I can bring it here now!” Tobio snapped as Oikawa went into full-on wailing, Suga trying to shush the child as his friend began to wail. Suga looked ready to pull his hair out as Keiji sighed, “Tobio, it isn’t nice to call people names. Apologise to him.”

“Don’t wanna!” Tobio wailed as Keiji glowered, “Tobio, now. Or else you won’t play volleyball for a week.”

That was enough to make the boy stop his yelling, his face reddening as he mumbled, “Sorry.”

“Louder,” Keiji ordered, already feeling bad for making his younger brother apologise as Tobio shouted, “Hinata boke! Sorry!”

That seemed to make Hinata wail even louder as Keiji sighed when the door slammed open to the sound of someone shouting, “Hey hey hey! What's up you little critters! Woah, Shouyou! Why are you crying, my little man?!” Keiji’s head was already aching from the boys crying so much.

However, when he turned to snap at the person who had just entered the room, he felt himself getting blown away, headache included as he stared at the most gorgeous man in existence.

He was ripped even though he was hiding it behind a white, black and gold jacket. He wore volleyball shoes on his feet and smelled very much like he just finished training, sweat clinging to his thick thighs as Keiji’s mouth watered. Golden eyes gleamed back at him and his hair, oh lord, how the hell did someone even manage to style hair like an owl?

Maybe being part of the babysitters club wasn’t such a bad idea after all.


	2. A typical day in the babysitting club

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Managed to have some ideas as well as how to bring this story going forward so here is a new chapter! I'm actually rewatching Gakuen Babysitters since I dunno what to watch and its too cute to resist!

“Uncle Kou!” Shouyou wailed as he rushed towards the owlish man whom Keiji had yet to be able to tear his eyes from. The little boy ran up to him, the teenager giving a hearty chuckle as he swept him up in his arms and cuddled him close. The boy did not seem to mind that he was being coated with sweat as Suga sighed, “Bokuto-kun, aren’t you supposed to be at volleyball practise now?”

“Suga-san! Don’t tell me I can't visit my favourite nephew!” Bokuto wailed as Shouyou whined, “Uncle Kou! Tobi called me a meanie and dummie!”

“Oh did he? Now, who is this Tobi?” Bokuto grinned, his eyes swivelling towards Tobio, who didn’t seem the slightest bit sorry for having lashed out at the boy earlier. Keiji quickly stood in front of his brother, shielding him from view before bowing low.

“Forgive me for my brother’s rudeness. This is his first day here in the daycare and he isn’t the most sociable person on the planet.” _He kinda got that from me though so I’m the one at fault here,_ Keiji thought just as the boy let out a boisterous laugh. Keiji hadn’t expected him to brush off the matter this quickly, a smile forming on his face as he waved his hand in front of him, “Oh don’t worry about it! they’re just kids! I used to call Kuroo a moron all the time as kids, or so my parents tell me.”

“That doesn’t excuse his behaviour,” Keiji muttered as Bokuto grinned, “Now now, don’t get so frazzled about it. Shou will forget about it in no time, the little man isn’t one to hold a grudge, aren’t you, my little protégé?” Hinata merely gave a pout before blowing a raspberry at Tobio who stuck his tongue out at the orange-haired boy. Keiji sighed as Suga let out a cough, “Ahem. Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Oh right. Practice. Sorry, Shou. Uncle will come to pick you up once practice is over, got it? Then we can play some spiking, how about that?” he grinned as Hinata’s eyes immediately widened with sparkles, “Really?”

“You bet it. Now excuse me but I gotta jam. See you peeps later!” Bokuto yelled as he slammed the door loud enough for Keiji to shudder. His ears rang from the shouting and the fact his blood had been rushing through his ears at full speed for the last few minutes when he felt a hand pressing on his shoulder followed by a very menacing grin that reminded him of a Cheshire cat.

“Oya oya, Bokuto-kun caught you eye eh? He is a hunk, isn’t he?” Suga sneered as Keiji felt his face redden. Tobio looks up at him, his tiny face scrunched up with concern as Keiji stammered, “Not in front of the kids, Suga-san.”

“Aw come on, don’t be a spoilsport. Oh, don’t tell me you… oya, you haven’t before haven’t you?”

“Suga-san!” Keiji snapped as the caregiver laughed his head off, clutching his sides as he wheezed. Tears pricked out of his eyes as the babies were jostled around his body, the two managing to stay asleep the entire time despite how much Suga was cackling like a hyena as he wiped his eyes.

“Ah, young love always gets to me. Speaking of which, I’m afraid I have to leave. I really need to go get something from the store,” Suga winked as he gentle unwrapped the two babies strapped onto him. He gently took Tooru and Hajime off in one go before passing them to Keiji, the two babies reaching to clutch onto each other as Tooru gave a tiny yawn. Keiji would have cooed at the sight if he weren’t occupied with trying to keep them asleep as Suga winked.

“I trust you will be alright with the kids? Their parents normally pick them up at 6ish but it can be later. Don’t worry about them not recognising you; they’ve been told you would be arriving today anyways. As for the kids,” the mad glint in Suga’s eyes never did leave them as Keiji gulped, “have fun with the little devils.” Keiji tried to say something, words failing him as Suga stripped off his apron and picked up his bag, whistling as he skipped out of the room.

“Suga-san! Can you go get your stuff a little later? I’m not sure if I can handle this lot that well,” Keiji called, slightly begging the man to stay since he had no clue on how to handle two babies, a pair of twins and two raging little spitfires, one of them being his own brother at one go. The noise was already giving him a headache and he was not looking forward to the talk he needed to give Tobio once they were at home as Suga gave a smile.

“They will be fine. Just don’t overexert yourself. Besides, this hunk of meat can only be gotten at this time. Limited edition.” Keiji didn’t have to think twice about what he meant.

The door slammed shut behind Suga, who sang a little tune under his breath as he bolted down the corridor. As soon as he left, Tooru stirred in his arms, sniffling as a harsh smell filled the air. Keiji internally groaned as Hajime did the same, the toddler wriggling in Keiji’s arms as Keiji let out a sigh. The other children were still running around, not having a care in the world at how many headaches their caregiver was going through.

“Alright, time to change your diapers,” Keiji muttered as he got to work.

Turns out changing the diapers was the easy bit. The two babies did little as he changed them out of their soiled nappies, Keiji glad there were gloves available as he strapped them on and began to clean Tooru’s behind. The brunet gurgled as Hajime held onto his finger, waiting for his turn patiently as Keiji thought how cute they were. He gently gave the toddler’s bottom a good wipe before fastening on a new diaper, giving him a good pat before doing the same with Hajime. This time, Tooru tried to cling to him as though Keiji was trying to take him away, the raven reassuring him that he was just due for a nappy change as chaos ensued from the older kids.

The Kita twins and Shouyou were having a wild game of tag at the moment, the squeals and screams bouncing off the walls as they raced around. Keiji didn’t have much time to pay attention to them, although he tried his best to patiently try and calm them down to no avail. Tobio wasn’t exactly a child who was this energetic, the only thing ever getting his attention being volleyball. Shouyou and the twins were a bundle of energy, racing from one end of the room to the other as they tagged each other.

“Tag!” Shouyou squealed as Atsumu let out a giggle, moving to run after him as Osamu followed. Osamu, whom he figured out was the older of the Kita twins seemed to be quieter than his younger one and watching out for him as they ran around the room. Atsumu, on the other hand, was a wild card, his screaming rivalling that of Shouyou’s as Keiji resisted the urge to scream at them to shut up.

He heard a plop and a wail, turning around to see Atsumu having had tripped over a stray block. The twin was already beginning to cry as Keiji finished up with the babies, making sure they were lying next to each other before crawling to Atsumu to pick him up.

“There there, are you ok, Atsumu-chan?” he asked. He picked up the boy, Osamu tugging on his pants as Keiji set the younger Kita down. Osamu gave his brother a pat on the head before slamming his forehead against his, Atsumu letting out a wail as Osamu muttered, “Me hit baka Tsumu’s head. Tsumu’s pain fly away!”

“Samu meanie! Hurts!” Atsumu sniffled, although he did give his older brother a hug as he muttered, “Thank you, Samu.” Keiji’s heart almost melted at the sight, although he was a bit concerned that Osamu was already capable of giving his brother a headbutt and feared for Atsumu’s mental capacity being intact when he felt a body crawling upon his body.

“Come play with us!” Shouyou yelled into his ear as Keiji tried to reach for the boy before he fell off. Shouyou clung onto him like a koala, refusing to budge as Keiji looked around for the last member of the nursery. His eyes fell onto Tobio who was curled up in the corner, holding onto a mini volleyball. The raven’s eyes were trained on the ball, his face red from all the yelling and screaming earlier. He clung onto the ball as though his life depended on it, Keiji slowly scooting over to him as Shouyou blew a raspberry at him.

“Hey, Tobio. Are you alright? Do you want to play ball or tag with them?” Keiji asked as Tobio scowled, “Don’t wanna. Shouyou boke.”

“Tobio baka!” Shouyou screamed into his ear as Keiji sighed, his ears ringing as he reached to pat his brother on the head, “Alright. I will be done soon so stay here for a while, alright?” Shouyou gave Keiji’s ear a tug as the teenager winced, wishing he could go to bed already as he heard the babies beginning to wail. He quickly moved over to Tooru and Hajime, who were being pulled apart by the Kita twins as he chided for them to leave the babies alone.

After around two hours of wrestling with the kids and challenging his mental capacity, the door finally slid open to reveal three adults; two females and one male. The male gave him a nod as the two females smiled at him before giving him a bow, “Ah, you must be Akaashi Keiji-kun.”

“Yes, I am. Thank you for your hard work,” Keiji murmured as he bowed to them. He gently handed over the babies to their mothers, Hajime’s mother careful to take her son in her arms as her colleague did the same. Hajime looked just like his mother, his mother sporting the wild black hair he had along with his dark complexion while Tooru had his mother’s wavy brown hair. The two gave a little wail from having been separated from Keiji, although they quickly stopped squirming once they were in their mother’s arms.

“I’m sorry if they were a hassle to you. These two just can’t be separated,” Mrs Iwaizumi smiled sheepishly as Mrs Oikawa laughed, “Oh don’t remind me. I think they’re getting better now though. They were so much worse last time that poor Suga-kun was having a nightmare.” The two women laughed as they thought on how poor Suga had to learn to walk around with two babies strapped on him when they first arrived, Keiji smiling when Mr Kita stepped in front.

“I’m Kita Shinsuke, the twin’s father. Sorry if they have been a nuisance to you, they can be quite the bunch,” he murmured as he gave him a low bow. The twins gave a squeal as they ran to their father, both of them tugging onto his pants as they squealed, “Daddy!”

“Alright, now its time to say thank you to Akaashi-kun. Osamu. Atsumu. What must you say to your sensei?” Mr Kita said as the two twins turned to give Keiji tiny bows, “Thank you and bye bye! See you tomorrow!” Mr Kita nodded with approval, moving to take their little backpacks from the chubby holes before giving Keiji one last bow.

“Now then, we will be leaving,” he said as the women did the same, the kids saying their goodbyes as they walked off. The twins clasped onto each other’s hands as their father ushered them in front, Mrs Iwaizumi and Mrs Oikawa chatting to one another as their sons remained asleep against them. Keiji gave them a wave when he realised that Shouyou’s mother, who taught English in the school hadn’t arrived to pick him up. He gave a tiny sigh as Shouyou quipped up from his pants, giving him a grin as he gave a thumbs up.

“Uncle Kou will bring me home! Mama busy and she said we can pway!” he beamed as Keiji smiled, giving the boy a pat on the head. Even though he had been very energetic and a bit rude to his younger brother, Keiji knew that he meant no harm.

Now all that was left is…

“Tobio?” Keiji called as he walked over to his brother, who was still rocking on his butt with the ball in his hands. He hadn’t moved from his position for the past two hours, which wasn’t something that alarmed Keiji since he often did that at home anyways. He gently reached out to pat his brother on his head, giving his black locks a ruffle as he whispered, “Sorry for keeping you waiting. Nii-chan will play with you when we get back, ok?”

When he reached to pick Tobio up, the boy tethered over, Keiji’s eyes widening as he realised how hot his brother was. Tobio fell into his arms, his body burning as he sucked in shallow breaths. His little hands were shaking as he squeezed his eyes shut, Keiji quickly pressing a hand onto his forehead as he confirmed the worse.

“Tobi… is Tobi alright?” Shouyou tried to ask as Keiji tried not to panic. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. Tobio never fell sick before, how was he supposed to…

“Hey hey hey!” a voice came as the door banged open, the smell of sweat drifting into the room as Bokuto stepped in.

“Uncle Kou!” Shouyou yelled as he rushed to the boy, Bokuto gently trying to push him away to avoid him from getting smelly as the little boy squeaked, “Tobi! Tobi isn’t feeling well!”

“What?” Bokuto gasped when Keiji turned, his brother wrapped in his arms as he stared into those golden eyes now widened with fear.

“Bokuto-san, please, help me save my brother!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanna guess what Suga needed to 'buy' from the 'store'?


	3. Sick Tobio = Worried as Heck Keiji

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Real life has been a bitch and I swear I might pop a vein soon... Haven't written much fanfiction in this past two months (two of my stories currently marinating in my laptop) and adding this little one to the list is kinda crazy but I will try and finish this one!
> 
> I dunno whether to be happy to hear my neighbour upstairs blasting Disney songs so loudly its as though they were right next to me or even in my room but whelp. Could be something more nuts or annoying.
> 
> Enjoy.

_“Keiji stared in awe at the tiny creature swaddled in blankets that his mother carried. The young teen wanted to poke its squishy looking cheeks that were now scrunched up into a scowl, the infant’s eyes shut tightly as his mother cooed at it._

_“Yoshi Yoshi. That’s a good boy, Tobio-chan. Keiji, come say hi to your new baby brother,” his mother smiled as she looked up at him. Despite her having just given birth several hours ago and screaming profanities at the nurses and doctors that would do a sailor proud, she was now beaming as though she just had the best clothes run of her life. Her husband gently pushed his son forward, letting the older boy peer over to give his younger brother a better look as his mother smiled, “Say hello to your big brother, Tobio. Keiji, say hi to your baby brother.”_

_Keiji never thought he would ever have any siblings. He had always been alone, mostly spending time with his grandparents when his parents went travelling around the world and as he got older, he learnt how to clean and cook on his own. He never did found the need to have another person in the house, preferring the solitude and immersing himself in his books. He had never even held a baby in his arms until now, his mother slowly passing the baby over to him as he felt the weight of his baby brother sink into his arms._

_He was so light. Keiji gently poked his cheeks, the baby stirring to open his mouth in a yawn. His tiny hands flailed about before catching onto Keiji’s finger, his mouth reaching to suck at it as Keiji gave his cheeks a little poke. Tobio cracked open one of his eyes, midnight blue contrasting his metallic blue ones as Keiji smiled._

_“Hello, Tobio. Niichan is going to take care of you, alright?” he pressed a gentle kiss on his forehead, the baby slowly going back to sleep as his father wailed at how unfair it was that his eldest son got to hold his youngest son first. His wife chided for him to quiet down lest they wake up Tobio, Keiji filtering out their bickering as he pressed a kiss to Tobio’s head._

_He was so precious and tiny, he needed to protect him at any costs._

_And yet._

“Tobio, I’m so sorry. Please, wait a while longer,” Keiji begged as he and Bokuto raced down the empty streets towards the hospital. The older boy had dropped off his nephew in the staffroom before rushing to show Keiji the way, his athletic speed proving to be a little too much for Keiji. His heart slammed against his chest, begging for a break as his muscles screamed in pain. Keiji panted as he gripped his brother to his chest, Tobio warm enough to act as a heat pack as Keiji prayed to the gods.

_Please. Spare my baby brother. Don’t take him too. Please. I beg of you._

They finally made it to the hospital, Bokuto telling the nurse everything that had happened as they were quickly led to one of the rooms. The nurse quickly reached out to take Tobio from Keiji’s arms, the student reluctant to let go of him as Bokuto gently pried his cold hands away from the toddler.

“Akaashi, they need to check him. you can let him go for now,” Bokuto muttered as Keiji slowly let his grip fall, his arms falling to his sides numbly as his brother was taken away. Keiji collapsed onto one of the benches lining the pediatric clinic, his head pounding from the blood rushing into it as he took in his surroundings.

Luckily for them, there was a paediatric clinic in the neighbourhood. The space was decorated with stuffed animals and toys to keep the kids occupied along with some pictures drawn by kids plastered on the walls. The clinic was quiet at this time, the only people there being him and Bokuto. Inside the room, they could hear the sound of the nurse and doctor checking up on Tobio, Keiji’s hands shaking as they finally called him in to check on his brother.

“Go on. I will go get us some drinks,” Bokuto murmured as Keiji nodded, slowly moving into the room where Tobio was now resting on a bed much too large for him. He looked so tiny against the white sheet, a cooling pack plastered on his forehead as he breathed in and out. His cheeks were still tinged red, although his breathing was now better as the doctor gently ushered him to sit down.

“You’re Tobio-kun’s older brother, Akaashi Keji, right?”

“I am.”

“Your brother will be fine. He just has a fever that may be induced by a new environment. He will be alright with a good night’s sleep.” Keiji felt his shoulders sagging in relief as he bowed his head low to the doctor, thanking him for his help. The nurse gently led him out to let the doctor check up on the boy a bit more.

“How about you call your parents for now and let them know about Tobio? I’m sure they must be worried that you haven’t returned home from school yet,” she smiled, Keiji nodding before giving her a bow of thanks. As the door to the room slammed shut behind her, Keiji numbly took out his phone, walking to the front door. His thumb scrolled through his very short contacts list when the reality of what was happening came crashing down onto him.

“Huh, why am I crying?” he whispered as he felt tears running down his cheeks, some of them dropping onto his phone as his knees gave way. The boy collapsed onto the concrete, curling up into a ball as he sobbed for the first time in years. He never was someone to cry but just thinking about the situation right now was enough to make him break.

His parents were dead, their bodies never having been recovered from the crash. Most of the passengers had been burnt to a crisp, their bodies too mangled to be shown to their already grieving family members. Somehow, Keiji had the tiny hope that they may have pulled some crazy stunt like in the movies and survived, their arms ready to greet them as usual when they stepped into their tiny flat.

He was an orphan. Akaashi Keiji and Akaashi Tobio had no one left in the world for each other. How on earth could he fail his younger brother like this? If Tobio had died… he would have never been able to face his parents in the afterlife.

“So you’re finally crying eh?” a voice muttered as a shadow fell over him, followed by a handkerchief being pushed into his hands. Keiji slowly looked up, his vision clearing slightly to reveal the Chairman and Headmaster of Fukurodani Academy, Ukai Ikkei. He had only met him once and that was when they moved into the Ukai household, the older man not saying much other than a "Welcome" and "Don't break anything" to the two boys before leaving them be. The older man had a knowing look on his face, his smile sad as he ran his hand through his hair.

Keiji leaned into the hand as he sobbed, trying to chase the warmth he yearned so much as the person whispered, “You know, those we have lost will never come back. That doesn’t mean you have to lose hope. But on the bright side, you have Tobio, Keiji and that is all that matters.”

“Sir… why did you take us in? You don’t even know us?” Was this some kind of sick joke? Keiji had always thought it was so strange for the man to take them in out of the blue and give them a home. Maybe he was going to sell them into the illegal black market and turn Keiji into a prostitute? He had had those thoughts before, Keiji being a bit too pretty for his own good he often got stares from nasty people across the years.

“Ya know, I lost my grandson in that plane crash too. He was the only family I had left. When I went to the funeral, I saw both of you standing in silence, not a single tear shed throughout the whole ceremony. You were all alone, just like me. And I couldn’t sit back and let you two go just like that,” Ukai whispered as he gave Keiji’s head a final pat before reaching out to him.

“I may be a master to a murder of crows that would devour anything in their path, but that doesn’t mean I would leave those lost behind. I hope you would come to see my intentions as kindness without ill intentions but for now, you better go check on your brother,” Ukai said. He straightened his back, his bones creaking as he turned to walk to the black car waiting outside.

“I will be waiting for you in the car and don’t you dare walk back! I’m hungry and want to eat!” he called as the door slammed shut behind him. Keiji gave a bow before stepping back into the clinic to hear the sound of a child wailing in the air. He slowly walked inside to see the nurse from earlier holding onto his baby brother, fat tears falling from his eyes as he wailed.

“Yoshi Yoshi Tobio-kun. Ah, Keiji-kun! Good timing! Tobio-kun just woke up and he won’t stop crying,” she smiled sheepishly as she gently handed the crying child over to his brother. Tobio turned his head to look at Keiji, his midnight blue eyes red as he cried out, his tiny chubby hands reaching towards Keiji.

“Keiji onichan!” he wailed as Keiji gently took him in his arms, cradling the tiny boy against his chest as he whispered into his hair, “You baka. Why didn’t you tell me you were sick? Do you know how worried I was for you? If you died, I would… I would…”

The nurse watched from afar as the two boys sobbed into each other, Keiji hugging onto Tobio for dear life as Tobio sniffled into him. He didn’t care if it was going to be a nightmare cleaning those stains out of his clothes but one thing’s for sure, he was never going to let his baby brother suffer ever again.

…

Bokuto Koutarou, ace of the volleyball team for Fukurodani Academy never thought he would lay his eyes on such a beauty of a guy in the nursery. When he had skipped to the nursery in hopes of having a little play with his nephew and the feisty Kita twins, he never thought he would stumble across an angel that must have fallen out from heaven.

Metallic blue eyes and black hair that curled along his neck. Slender fingers that would be able to set a ball beautifully once given enough training. A slim body hidden behind a black gakuran that didn’t belong to the Academy and plump lips that made Bokuto swoon inside.

Shit, he didn’t even get the boy’s name!

That didn’t stop him from bringing him to the clinic when he saw him clutching onto his baby brother for dear life, the fear in his eyes equal to one where he was about to get shot in the face. Bokuto wasn’t exactly a fan leaving Shouyou behind and breaking his promise but he didn’t want to see Keiji falling apart any more than needed.

Now he stood outside of the clinic, listening to the whole exchange between Keiji and the Headmaster. He had heard of the ill-fated crash in the news but he didn’t think that Keiji and the Headmaster would be connected in such a manner. The way Keiji sobbed broke his heart even though he couldn’t see it happening from his spot, his heart pounding as he held a hand to his chest. The pokari bottle lay forgotten in his pocket, condensation wetting his pants as he clutched his hand to his chest.

He never wanted to see Keiji crying like that ever again.

He was going to protect the raven as much as he could.

Even if a little baby boy would probably get in the way of his mission.


	4. Life in the daycare (and an unexpected visitor)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today is my birthday so gonna release an extra chapter for this week.
> 
> Real-life has been a crazy bitch; didn't get the postgrad program I wanted after waiting for half a year for it to go through and just contemplating if I can even proceed in life with whats going on. My brain is just filled with anxiety and worry about the future and whether I can even continue my studies but just hoping it will all be ok.
> 
> On the bright side, chapter 401 is out today so thats the best birthday gift I could ever ask for.
> 
> Enjoy this cuteness overload! This was one of my favourite chapters to write in all honesty!

Life in Fukurodani Academy turned out to be an interesting experience for Keiji. After the little scare with Tobio, Keiji found himself clinging to the little boy much more than he would like.

As for the daycare, things were about as normal as it could get with four squalling toddlers and two babies. Suga turned out to be much more responsible than the first impression he had left on the teen, able to sort out the kids whenever they got into scuffles or giving them a smile sharp enough to shut them up. The man may look very kind and motherly but after seeing how he had the ability to shut the two twins up, Keiji himself began to fear the man behind the sweet mask. That didn’t mean he wasn’t a sweetheart, Suga was as kind and pure as a caregiver could get.

The kids were just… kids. The twins were noisy, the two often scheming to find ways to annoy the living shit out of Tobio and trying to vie for Shouyou’s attention. The little redhead was the source of joy in the room while the twins were chaos. While Osamu often tended to stay silent and keep his younger more active twin in check, that didn’t mean he himself didn’t take part in the various pranks they pulled in the daycare. Atsumu was the noisy one of the two, finding ways that surprised Keiji at how a four-year-old was even capable of stringing together such insults.

Shouyou was a ball of sunshine who was just as boisterous as his uncle. He could never sit still and getting him to nap was a nightmare that only Suga knew how to handle. Keiji found himself wishing he could clap his hands over his ears at how noisy the kids could get. Tobio was never one to make much noise or do anything aside from playing volleyball so dealing with three boys with so much energy was something new to him; Keiji had thought Tobio could get bad at times.

The babies were as obedient as they could get. The two never separated during the entire duration of their stay, clinging together only to separate to go to the toilet. Suga was often found holding onto the two on the front and back of his back, the two spending most of their time sleeping. When they were awake, it often involved Hajime crawling in circles around Tooru, who would often be found sleeping or trying to get his best friend to do something. The two made Keiji’s heart melt at how cute and pure they were; Hajime was the one who made sure Tooru was always safe, as well as a two-year-old, could, often letting out a growl whenever someone tried to take Tooru from him. Tooru would then let out wails when he was separated from Hajime; the first time Keiji had picked him up to bring him to wash his hands, Hajime had actually bitten his hand in order to get his friend back.

Maybe them being too clingy wasn’t the best thing in the world.

And then there was the resident owl of the academy, ace to the volleyball team and men’s captain, Bokuto Koutarou.

Keiji had to admit that whenever he saw the owl man, it made his day both better and also puts him at risk at having a heart attack even more. Bokuto had the power to light up the entire room and made the kids behave when Keiji couldn’t make them; he himself was such a child that he was able to connect to the toddlers without any problems. Shouyou adored him, idolised him even to the point of wanting to be a spiker like him, although Keiji wasn’t sure if he was actually aware what the position was.

It brought Keiji back to the times he wished he could play a sport; volleyball had one of the options he had been given when he was younger to play but once his younger brother was born, he dropped out of club in order to take care of him. Tobio wasn’t as demanding as other children and after Keiji showed him a game of volleyball on TV, the boy had been hooked to it. He even managed to find a volleyball in their house and chewed it, much to Keiji’s horror.

Before they knew it, they had been in the daycare for nearly a month, the days slowly but surely getting a bit warmer, although that didn’t stop them from suffering in the cold.

One such occasion involved Keiji standing outside in the cold in shorts and a shirt, freezing the living shit out of himself as his friend and classmate, Konoha Akinori chattered through his teeth.

“Holy son of a bitch, what the hell is Daichi-sensei even thinking of chucking us out here? It's not even in the positive degrees right now!” Konoha stammered as he huddled close to Keiji for warmth. It didn’t help that Keiji was pretty much a beanstalk, Konoha having much more muscle than him since he was a regular on the volleyball team. The boy had somehow managed to catch on to Keiji’s glances and slight infatuation with the volleyball star, making every opportunity to tease the living shit out of him the best he could.

Right now, he was too cold to do anything other than curse their PE teacher to the nine circles of Hell.

“Come on boys! You’re young and sprightly, aren’t you! Get to running now on the double! Time isn’t going to wait for you! Last one back has to clean the whole yard!” Daichi-sensei, the resident PE teacher and also the man who headed the Fukurodani volleyball team barked as the boys grumbled into submission. While the girls were having a fun session of volleyball in the gym, the boys were made to run a full 10 km in the cold. Keiji didn’t mind running and Konoha was doing a bit better than him, although the spiker looked about ready to pummel his teacher to the ground after throwing all sorts of volleyball drills at him that morning.

“I swear I am going to die. Daichi-sensei is a demon coach and he thinks of all of us has Bokuto’s stamina to even keep up. The stupid oaf was still going on at spiking even though the class had started. Damn, I need a reason to hate Bokuto but still, you gotta admit on how focused he is to the sport,” Konoha panted as they ran around the block. Keiji wasn’t really listening to his rambling as his mind went to how broad Bokuto’s back was and how it would feel to trace his shoulder blades. Sometimes he would close his eyes and imagine large owl wings spreading from his back, allowing the boy to take flight and conquer the skies as he desired.

“Hello! Earth to Keiji! We’ve arrived back to the yard and you didn’t even notice?” Konoha whistled as he waved a hand in front of Keiji's face. Keiji stumbled on his feet, not realising he was still running. Konoha chuckled, looping a freezing arm around his neck as he grinned, “Oya, were you thinking perhaps of you-know-who? Mr Hunk of Meat and volleyball extraordinaire?”

“Shut it Konoha,” Keiji growled as the boy wiggled his eyebrows. There was a reason why he was called the local Gossip King as well as the Jack-of-all-trades; while he did everything and didn’t necessarily did well at them, he did know enough to drive shit into some people when he wished.

Before Konoha could elaborate any further, there was the sound of familiar wailing filling the air followed by a growl. Keiji turned to see Suga beaming at him, a trolley full of squabbling toddlers pushed in front of him. Tobio and Shoyou were locked in a fistfight, Shouyou clutching onto Tobio’s hat while the other boy tried to punch his nose, Keiji sighing as he went over and picked the two of them apart.

“Tobio, don’t punch Shouyou,” Keiji groaned. This wouldn’t be the first time his brother had tried to punch Shouyou; they were lucky that Bokuto just saw it as kids playing and not some kind of offence to them. Heck, Bokuto even taught them how to do an uppercut, much to Keiji’s horror and Suga’s amusement when the ace accidentally clocked himself in the jaw when trying to demonstrate.

“Tobio baka,’ Atsumu whined as he pointed to Tobio as Osamu mumbled, “You’re a baka, Tsumu.”

“Samu meanie!” Atsumu wailed, tears forming in his eyes as Keiji sighed, “Suga-san, is it a good idea to bring them out like this?” The sound of crying babies filling the air wasn’t helping with Keiji’s sanity and it was beginning to draw attention from the rest of his classmates. Suga merely shrugged as he jostled the two toddlers back to sleep, Hajime’s growling reduced to little grunts while Tooru was just looking around the best he could with his hat covering his eyes.

“How about this, kids? If you stop fighting, you can have a walk around the yard, how about that?” Suga asked as the kids squealed with joy, Keiji opening his mouth to tell him this was a very bad idea when the daycare teacher unleashed the little hell monsters to the earth. Osamu and Atsumu nearly tripped over each other as they ran out of the cart, Tobio and Shouyou glaring at one another as they walked out of the cart. Keiji hoped his brother wouldn’t try to land another punch on the orange-haired boy when Konoha approached, a mad glint in his eyes as he stammered, “Sensei, would it be ok if I hold onto one of the kids? I’m freezing!”

“Konoha, I don’t think it would…” Keiji started, not wanting to imagine Konoha holding onto one of the babies like a heat pack. A bunch of boys began to crowd around them, all of them with madness in their eyes as Suga beamed, “Go ahead. If you can catch them that is.”

“What?!” Keiji yelled as the boys scattered, all of them trying to latch onto one of the children. Keiji watched in horror as the yard turned into a battle zone, boys fighting over the toddlers while Suga merely smiled in amusement.

“Suga-san, what the hell?” Keiji groaned just as a cough came up, Suga turning a bit red as the PE teacher approached. Keiji had to admire him being able to wear a shirt that tight without ripping it; Bokuto was just about the only one who had muscles that matched his. Sawamura Daichi was built like a tank; a mop of black hair sat on his head and his arms and thighs were roped with muscles. Konoha had said he used to play volleyball in his high school days but damn, he must still be working out in the gym.

Suga was right when he said that he was a limited edition prime slice of meat. The daycare teacher would often steal glances at the man when he lead the volleyball players during drills that took place in the yard that the daycare window overlooked, a dreamy smile on his face as he watched. Keiji may not be an expert in love but he knew how lovesick the man was towards the coach; he could practically see hearts rising out of Suga’s head with each sigh.

The said man stopped in front of the daycare teacher, who had a grin on his face as he sighed, “I would appreciate if you don’t interrupt my lessons, Suga.”

“Daichi! Great to see you! I didn’t know you had class now and thought the kids would like some fresh air.”

“Suga, it's zero degrees outside!”

“Tehe,” the man giggled as Keiji mentally face palmed himself when he saw some rustling in the bushes. He turned to see a tiny twin being held up by a massive figure, his bulk covered in a large trenchcoat with his eyes covered in glasses. He had a large-brimmed hat on his head and the scowl on his face just screamed “Stalker and murderer” in Keiji’s head when Keiji ran towards the man to save the twin.

“Hey you!” he yelled as the man turned to face him, not even flinching as Keiji ripped off one of his shoes and threw it at his face, the man avoiding it as Suga yelled, “Hey, Keiji, what are you…”

“He’s trying to kidnap him!”

“What do you mean?! He’s their dad, Ushijima Wakatoshi!”

Keiji stopped in his tracks as he stared at the man, who proceeded to pull up his shades to reveal eyes that made Keiji think that he was going to murder him. Instead, he stooped down to pick up the fallen shoe, walking towards him before handing it to him. Keiji numbly took it from him when Konoha yelped, his voice growing several octaves higher as he yelled, “Wait, _that_ Ushijima Wakatoshi? The volleyball player who’s the ace to Japan’s national volleyball team? Just who is he to the kids?!”

“Papa-san!” Osamu yelled as he ran to join his twin who was still wriggling in Ushijima’s grasp, Konoha’s jaw-dropping as he yelled, “What the hell? He’s married with kids?! Who is the freaking wife?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was thinking for the longest time on who should the twin's mother be but since I'm quite a bit of a UshiKita shipper, voila.


	5. Kita twins big daddy makes his debut!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got my degree baby!!! Now just have to wait to sort out my application for masters and I can breath, sigh... dammit fanfiction is the only thing keeping me sane and with Haikyuu coming to an end soon, just feeling like the reason for me living is disappearing bit by bit arghhh!!!
> 
> I was actually looking at my dissertation for my undergrad and I actually used the very first quote that Hinata said in Haikyuu as my acknowledgements fufu (just about the only reason why I want to get it printed haha!).
> 
> Other than my rant, enjoy some cute Miya twins and papa Shinsuke and Ushijima fluff!!!

After Daichi managed to shepherd the rest of their class back indoors, Keiji and Konoha, who somehow managed to get into Suga’s grasp and was dragged back to the daycare room, where seated in front of Ushijima. The man still had the twins in his grasp, the two boys trying to pull their father’s hair as he bowed low to introduce himself.

“My name is Ushijima Wakatoshi and I’m the father to Osamu and Atsumu. Pleased to meet your acquaintance,” he rumbled. His voice was deep and sent chills up Keiji’s spine. He thought he had a bad facial expression but dang, Ushijima took the cake in that category. The man had a face that screamed murder (no offence to him) and had the same thinly pressed line of a mouth ever since he stepped inside.

Konoha’s mouth was gaping like a fish as Keiji tried to close it several times to no avail. The volleyball player was meeting one of his idols after all. Keiji himself had heard of Ushijima when he was younger; a prodigy born in a generation of monsters, he was a left-handed spiker who took the court by storm ever since he began the sport, rising to the occasion of being on the Olympic men’s team at the young age of 18. He even led his team to win nationals three times in a row when he was in Shiratorizawa Academy.

“Wait, if you’re the father, then Kita-sensei… he never mentioned anything about his wife so I thought she must have been… and your last name hasn't changed at all,” Konoha blurted as Ushijima said, “I didn’t want to burden Shinsuke with telling his students about me. If they knew about my status, they might have been flocking him for autographs so he decided to stay silent about me. I don’t think it would sit well with them either about us being married so we kept our surnames.”

“I mean its cool man that you two are married but shit, Kita-sensei being married to you… wow. That’s just wow,” Konoha yammered as he bowed low to him, his forehead crashing onto the ground as he yelped, “Ushijima-san, can I have your autograph?! I don’t have a pen or paper but if you could sign on my shirt…”

“Konoha-kun, don’t startle Ushijima-san like this,” Suga smiled, his smile a little sharp as Ushijima nodded, “Sure. Suga, if you have materials I can use.”

“Sheesh, Ushiwaka. You’re too nice to them! You need to say no more or else you wouldn’t be in the arena with people flocking to you hours after a game ends,” Suga sighed as he went over to the box containing pens and paper in the corner. It was amazing how he managed to balance the two toddlers on his body without jostling them awake; at one point, Keiji was so sure Tooru’s head would bump against something but Suga managed to bring them back in one piece. Ushijima thanked him as Konoha swooned at him, bowing to him and claiming the autograph to be a family heirloom as Suga asked, “So, Ushiwaka. What brings you here? It's rare to ever see you here with the kids?”

“I just came back from a training camp in America and thought I should see them. I haven’t seen the twins in a while and since I’m off today, I thought I would spend time with them. I’m beginning to find that the twins are more concerned with what I bring for them from my trips instead of my actual presence and its beginning to sadden me,” Ushijima muttered, his face dropping ever so slightly with sadness as Atsumu quipped up, “Papa! I wanna some toys! Did you bring us toys?”

“Atsumu…” Ushijima sighed as Osamu joined in, “Toys!” Keiji almost felt bad for the man as he produced two dolls from his trenchcoat pocket, each of a fox in different colours. Osamu took the grey one while Atsumu took the golden one, both of them squealing in joy as they rush off to show their friends their new gifts.

“As you can see, they aren’t very interested in me,” Ushijima said as Konoha quipped, “Ushijima-san! Why don’t you stay here and play with them? That way they could get to know you better!”

“I don’t know how to play anything but volleyball…”

“Figures but you must have had something you did as a kid, right?” the student asked as Ushijima’s shoulders sagged, enough indication to inform them that yes, his brain only had volleyball and Kita by the looks of it. Even Suga looked as though he had long given up on the subject, although Konoha was adamant on helping his volleyball idol win the trust of his kids even though he and Keiji would have to ditch class for the day.

#1 : Jump rope.

That proved to be nearly fatal as Ushijima was a bit too tall to play jump rope with the kids. Whenever he jumped, the floor more or less quaked and he nearly stepped on some of the kids as they jumped. Shouyou nearly became orange juice several times and Suga had to stop the game lest face the wrath of a very hormonal Hinata-sensei who was currently pregnant with her second child and was in no mood of finding out that her younger son had become squash.

#2 Choo choo train

Turns out Ushijima had no idea on what it was and when the time came for him to play the conductor, the only thing he succeeded in doing was making Shouyou and Tobio want to cry. Keiji tried to calm the two of them down as Suga tried to coax the twins into playing with them since they were too engrossed playing a little game with their new toys in the corner. The babies woke up at one point as well, leaving Ushijima a bit devastated that he had caused so much chaos to the kids.

#3 Power rangers (Don't ask me why, I love Power Rangers!)

Nothing could go wrong with some role play right?

Except it did when Ushijima tried to act like Lord Zedd from Power Rangers and freaked the kids out with how scary he looked. He managed to play the role of a villain all too well, even his own kids getting a bit scared of their dad cackling at them and pointing a staff at them (Keiji still had no idea where the hell Konoha even managed to pull out all of their props from).

Finally, Ushijima gave up and sulked in the corner, a heavy aura hanging over his head. Even Konoha didn’t dare approach the giant as Suga tried to round up the kids for naptime. Keiji headed over to the spiker and touched him lightly on the shoulder, the man flinching at his touch as Keiji asked, “Ushijima-san, do you want to tuck the kids to bed? Its almost their nap time.”

“Thank you Akaashi-kun but I think my time here is up. It's clear the twins do not want me here and I don’t want to make my relations with them worse anymore.”

“But you’re their father. You can’t just…”

  
“Shinsuke was the one to adopt them. I didn’t know if it was a good idea to bring kids into our relationship but at the time, Kita was so sure about adopting the two. I couldn’t say no to something that would give him so much happiness and the twins, they were so cute at the time that I couldn’t help but fall for them as well. But with my career as a volleyball player and having to go out of the country often, it seems that they only see me as a provider rather than as a parent. They seem to love Shinsuke more than me as well,” Ushijima sighed as Keiji’s heart nearly broke at how sad he was. Konoha watched from where he was tucking the kids into bed, the twins watching their father with interested eyes as Ushijima stood up.

“Thank you for everything. I’m leaving for Korea tonight and must pack. Good day,” Ushijima said as he stepped out of the daycare and closed the door behind him. Keiji watched his retreating back disappeared down the corridor when he felt two tugs on his pants, looking down to see Osamu and Atsumu clutching onto him.

“Keiji, is Papa sad?”

…

Ushjima didn’t know what he did wrong. He did everything in the book that Tendou had lent to him on raising kids and it only seemed to be making things worse between the volleyball player and his sons. He thought he could compensate for his absence by giving them toys and gifts despite Shinsuke telling him it's beginning to clutter the house and yet… the boys never saw him more than an all-year-round Santa Claus.

And that hurt him so much. He remembered all the times he wished his family was whole and that his father had been there for him instead of his mother. The only thing that gave him joy and the slightest hint of being part of a family was his volleyball team who stood with him every step of the way.

Then he met Shinsuke and for the first time in his life, he found love for someone outside of the court. Shinsuke made him feel human again, gave him the knowledge of how it was like to love once more. With his calming presence and his ability to make Ushijima take care of himself through his kind words, Ushijima found himself falling head over heels for the man and marrying him on the spot.

That was when Shinsuke mentioned children. Ushijima had been sceptical about the notion since he had no idea how it was like to be a father having grown up without one as well. Shinsuke himself grew up with largely absent parents but the words that he told him the day before the adoption made him believe that he had the slightest chance of being a good father.

_“No one is born a parent. Its something we have to learn to do. Together.”_

Ushijima felt himself knock into someone, some papers scattering on the ground as a boy voiced out his apologies. Ushijima knelt down to help pick them up when he realised he had forgotten to wear his glasses, his face on full display when the boy gaped at him, dropping his papers on the ground once more as he yelped, “Ushijima Wakatoshi?!”

“Where?!” another boy yelled as he popped his head out of his classroom, the sound of students beginning to stampede into the hall echoing as Ushijima quickly made his escape through the window. Luckily for him, he was on the ground floor and managed to slip into the courtyard but that didn’t stop the fast volleyball players from chasing after him. Ushijima cursed under his breath at how his age was beginning to affect him, not being able to outrun the boys when he saw a crowd of fangirls swarming in from the other direction, blocking his exit as several voices shouted his name.

“Can I have your autograph?”

“My brother will be so jealous when he sees this selfie!”

“Can I interview you for the school paper?”

“Marry me!!!”

The requests were making Ushijima wish he could bury himself in the dirt. He didn’t become a volleyball player to please the masses, he only ever wanted to remain on the court longer than others and continue to play volleyball.

“Papa!” two voices yelled as he swivelled his head to see Osamu and Atsumu riding on the shoulder of Konoha and Keiji, the boys reaching to hold them up above the throng of students as Ushijima whispered, “Boys?”

“Papa! We love you! Come back!” they squealed, tears filling their eyes as Ushijima felt himself tear up. How long he had yearned to hear them say that they loved him and wanted to hold onto him. He hadn’t held them properly in months and missed out most of their life; sometimes he even confused Osamu with Atsumu.

“Osamu! Atsumu!”

“Papa!”

A whistle filled the air as a shadow stood on top of a statue of Ukai Ikkei. There was a collective gulp as a man stood on top of the statue, his suit jacket hanging from his shoulders like a cape as Kita Shinsuke growled, “All of you. Back to your classes or I will make sure you have to run 10km every day for the rest of the semester with Daichi-sensei.”

That was enough to make the crowd scatter, Kita sighing as he jumped down from the statue.

“You looked, cool,” Ushijima pointed out as Kita chuckled, “I’m not called the demon sensei for nothing. What brings you here? I thought you were going to Korea tonight and needed some rest?”

“I think I need some time off with the family,” Ushijima smiled as he wrapped an arm around Kita to give him a kiss on the lips, “I’m home, Shinsuke.”

“Welcome home, Wakatoshi,” Kita smiled, leaning in for another kiss when Keiji coughed behind them, “Ahem, there are kids here.” The two men broke apart from each other, a smile on each other’s faces as Kita traced a finger on Ushijima’s collarbone, “So, dinner tonight?”

“I will like that.”

As sweet as this was, Keiji wasn’t sure if this PDA would be a good idea with the twins staring in horror at what their parents are doing in front of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided not to change their family names due to them wanting to not have to face prejudice for being a couple and possibly it affecting Ushijima's career. 
> 
> Hope you guys like it!
> 
> Do you guys prefer if I did a date chapter between BokuAka or jump into them starting the next school year (in case this wasn't clear, Akaashi entered Fukurodani towards the end of their school year so he's still a first year while Bokuto is a second year. Sorry for the confusion if you got confused!!!)
> 
> Kudos and comments really make my day!


	6. Is this an owl(s) falling in love?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I nearly died from a heart atack after seeing maggots in the food bin in my kitchen. Luckily my bro came in and saved my ass when I was just curling into a ball and wishing to vanish into thin air ughhh!!! I swear I am just dying when I saw them but on the bright side, now I have some energy to write to get the blinking traumatic memory out of my head!
> 
> On a side note, as Haikyuu is coming to an end tomorrow, for the love of Furudate-sensei and for all the fans who have yet to read the manga, including me, please do not spoil!! I have been avoiding online sources apart from this website (and even then I have to be careful in clicking several stories since I had some instances where I got spoiled so bad arghhh!!!). One more day and we'll never have to worry about Haikyuu spoilers again (dunno if thats a good or bad thing wth). 
> 
> Anyways, enjoy this!!!

Bokuto sighed as he stood on the court, the ball bouncing off Konoha’s arms as he yelled for the spiker to get it. Bokuto watched as the ball soared through the air, his opponent flying to spike the ball. The ace continued to hang back as the ball fell onto his side of the court, their libero scooping it up for the setter to rise. Kenma sighed as he set for him to get it when Kuroo yelled, “Bro!”

Bokuto rose as he leapt into the air, feeling his feet lifting off the ground as he rose. He could feel the wings spreading from his back as the sun stared into his eyes, his arm drawn back to spike the ball down when he thought he saw a certain boy setting to him. His mouth opened as he carved out his name with his tongue. His voice was calm and rich, sending chills down Bokuto’s spine as he savoured the way the boy said his name, the syllables rolling off his tongue as though he was saying an ancient text written by the gods.

“Bokuto-san!”

“Dude watch out!” Kuroo yelled as the ball collided with the spiker’s face, causing him to fall hard on his butt on the ground. He gave a howl of pain as Daichi blew the whistle to end the game. Some of the players crowded around their ace with worry as Kuroo gave him a hand, “Come on man. Don’t tell me Kenma’s toss was that hard.”

“I wasn’t even tossing that high or hard,” Kenma muttered as the bedheaded rooster ruffled his hair with his annoying smirk, “Come on, kitten. It ain't your fault. I’m pretty sure this bad boy was thinking about the certain angel currently gracing the daycare.” The cat smirked even more as Bokuto’s face turned bright red, Daichi sighing before yelling for the boys to clean up and head home. Kuroo threw a grin over his shoulder as he threw an arm over Kenma to ensure the setter didn’t slink away from their cooldowns to play videogames, leaving Bokuto to sigh in defeat as Daichi knocked his head with a clipboard.

“What the hell man!”

“Bokuto, I know you’re the ace and the next captain but we need your head in the game. I know Akaashi-kun can be a sight to behold but I don’t want that distracting you on the court,” Daichi sighed as the spiker grew fifty shades redder thinking of how he would actually act if Keiji was on the court with him. His metallic eyes reminded him of the night sky and his body would fit right on him when he held him tight. He could imagine how soft Keiji would be against his lips, his plump lips tasting of stardust and moonlight as they kissed.

“What the hell is wrong with me?!” Bokuto groaned as he stood up from the ground and went to join his team in the cooldowns, Kuroo smirking at him the whole time while Konoha threw some worried looks at his senpai’s face. They may not be training as much since Nationals was now over but that didn’t mean the boys could slack if they wanted to kick Itachiyama’s ass the next year. The powerhouse literally slaughtered them on the court and they swore defeat against them the next year.

That was what they had been saying for the past five years anyways.

“Oya, still can’t get angel boy out of your head? You looked as though you’ve been cooking up something out of Fifty Shades of Grey the way your face turned red,” the cat snickered as Bokuto cuffed him over the head. The boys headed to the showers, Bokuto slamming the door shut as he let the water cascade over his body. He ran a hand through his hair as Kuroo continued to sing a song he made up about Akaashi. Konoha shouted for the middle blocker to shut up as he groaned, “Hey, since we’re done with nationals, how about you go somewhere with him? The guy could use a break from all that babysitting right?”

“Where though? The mall? I hate the mall,” Bokuto groaned as Komi chirped, “How about the zoo? I heard they have a new owl exhibit coming up in a few days…”

“Owls?!” Bokuto yelped as half of the team clapped their hands over their ears. Their captain was very loud when he got excited, Kenma questioning why he even bothered going to school with the noisest and most obnoxious stupid duo on the planet as Bokuto yelled, “Alright! I will go invite Akaashi to the zoo for a date! That rocks!”

“It’s going to stink,” Kenma muttered as Kuroo flicked some soapsuds at the blonde’s face, the younger boy growling as he tried not to scratch Kuroo in the face.

…

“Akaashi!” Bokuto yelled as he slammed open the door to the daycare with Shouyou in tow. Keiji gave him a tired look of exasperation, having given up on telling him to not slam the door in case the babies woke up but by some miracle, Bokuto’s flashy entrances were some of the few things that they didn’t wake up too. They had finally stopped wailing whenever Keiji had to pry them apart for a nappy change but other than that, they still wailed at every little thing.

  
“Good morning, Bokuto-san,” Keiji muttered as Bokuto felt a cupid arrow strike through his heart. He wondered how his first name would sound on Keiji’s tongue, his brain already getting fried as his nephew wriggled out of his arms and ran to join Tobio, who was busy assembling an assortment of bricks into a tower. For a moment, Bokuto watched as Keiji arranged some of the toys into boxes, the older boy shuffling his feet as he tried to come up with what to say when Keiji sighed.

“Bokuto-san, is there something I can help you with?”

  
“Yes!” Bokuto blurted as Osamu and Atsumu turned to glance at him. There was an evil smirk forming on both of their faces, Bokuto questioning what kind of god would make twins such little devils as he yelped, “You wanna go to the zoo with me this Saturday? I don’t have practice so we can go early in the…”

“Zoo? Me wanna go zoo!” Shouyou yelped as he raced to his uncle, barrelling into the athlete as the boy yelped, “Uh, Shouyou, it's just going to be me and Akaashi.”

“Why? Me wanna see the crows!”

“Baka. You can see crows here,” Tobio scowled as Keiji sighed, “Tobio, don’t fight.”

“Tobio stupid! Crows are in zoo! Zoo is cool! Me wanna go zoo see crows!” Shouyou yelled as Tobio stuck out his tongue at him. The Kita twins were now walking towards them, turning to give Bokuto puppy dog eyes as they said together, “We wanna see the foxes.”

“You guys…” Bokuto groaned. The babies decided to join in, gurgles filling the air as Suga popped his head out of the attached toilet, the sound of the toilet flushing barely blocking out his question, “So, who’s going to the zoo?”

“We are!” Shouyou yelled as the twins nodded, the babies joining in as Suga beamed, “Uh, we could do a sort of trip if they want with the parents. I’m sure they would love to bring them out for a change.”

“Daddy bring us!” Atsumu and Osamu yelled as Shoyou shrieked as Bokuto found his plan falling through even more by the second as Tobio sealed the final nail in the coffin by tugging Keiji’s pants.

“Niichan, can we go?” Tobio asked as Keiji sighed before stooping down to give his brother a little pat on the head, “I will ask the Headmaster if we can, but only if Bokuto-san allows us.” When Keiji turns his head to face him, Bokuto couldn’t help but melt at the sight, thinking of how cute Keiji would be with the kids surrounding him as though he was their papa. The ace mentally gave himself a slap for thinking such random things as he put on his biggest smile, trying his best not to give his nephew a whack on the head as he beamed, “Sure! The more the merrier!”

…

A date. This had to be a date right?

Keiji couldn’t stop thinking about Bokuto’s request as he sat in front of his cabinet, staring at the few clothes he had available as he rifled through them to find a suitable outfit. He was going to the freaking zoo, not the mall or something so why the hell was he getting so worked up about it?

Tobio watched his older brother mentally tearing his hair out as he tried to pick an outfit, tossing shirt after shirt onto the bed and checking to see if any of his pants had holes. He was even checking to see his he had the right underwear (Keiji didn’t know what possessed him to think he needed to be aware of that!), setting aside a nice pair with owls on them as Tobio asked, “Niichan ok?”

“Yes, Tobio. I’m fine. Just a little… busy,” Keiji said through gritted teeth as he remembered how Ukai’s reaction had been earlier.

_“A trip to the zoo with the kids eh? Sure, go ahead.”_

_“But sir, I don’t really want to impose on you.”_

_“You’re young so go have some fun and go out! Don’t waste your life away when you have someone you found,” he chided as Keiji turned red. Takeda looked as though he was trying to hold back his laughter, the butler grinning behind his hand as Keiji wondered how bad his facial expressions were when it came to Bokuto._

“It will be fine. It will be fine,” Keiji murmured as he finally tossed his outfit onto the table and crawled into bed with Tobio, wrapping them in the blankets as he kissed Tobio goodnight.

“Goodnight Tobio,” he whispered as he kissed him, closing his eyes when he felt a little hand on his cheek. He opened his eyes to see Tobio trying his best to smile at him, his cheeks puffed out as he whispered, “Nii-chan good! Nii-chan have fun!”

Keiji nodded as he held onto his brother, the two boys closing their eyes as they chased after their dreams in wonderland.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter is shorter than normal but hope you guys enjoyed it!!!


	7. To the zoo! (or we're already the zoo itself)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today marks the end of the legacy of an amazing series that has been ongoing and been part of many people's lives for the past 8 years. Thank you Furudate-sensei for giving us Haikyuu, one of the best manga, if not the best ever to exist and giving us such beautiful characters that would continue live on until the end of our days through our love and support for it. I was so close to crying reading and I love the ending. It's so beautiful and Haikyuu helped me through the worse spots of my life.
> 
> In order to ward off the sadness, here is a chapter update. I also finished my OsaSuna fanfic since I needed to pour out my Chapter 402 feels somewhere.
> 
> Enjoy.

The day started off as good as it could get on a cold winter morning. Keiji had to wrap himself and Tobio up in many bundles for their trip to the zoo, accompanied by a huge stack of bentos, curtesy of an overenthusiastic Takeda who shooed them out of the house before they could protest. Keiji thought the man was a little bit too nice to the point he spoiled them to a fault, the money jingling in his pocket reminding him to get some souvenirs for Ukai and Takeda on the way back.

As he balanced a toddler in one arm and a stack of bentos in the other, Keiji was surprised he managed to make it to the Academy in one piece, where Suga was waiting with a large van to drive the group to the zoo. Since most of the female teachers often relied on their husbands to drive and Kita had the twins to deal with, in order to avoid people from getting lost or crashing into other people, Suga had offered to drive. Bokuto called shotgun as he sat in front, Hinata balanced precariously on his lap as Suga chided for him to put the boy in the back.

Bokuto was just like a little kid on a trip to the zoo for the first time, singing along to the random children songs on the radio that Suga had put on. At one point, Keiji felt himself wanting to die from embarrassment as Bokuto sang “Do you want to build a snowman?” to him, knowing full well he wouldn’t answer to him as the kids sang along. The adults were trying hard not to giggle, Kita-sensei even giving the smallest of grins at the suffering teenager as Bokuto continued to howl “Let it go” until they pulled up in front of the zoo.

The Tokyo zoo was huge; crowds of people were already waiting to get inside. Luckily, Suga had managed to purchase tickets for all of them beforehand, handing them out to the adults as the kids squealed what they wanted to see in the zoo.

“Foxes!” the Kita twins squealed as Kita hushed for them to be quieter, heavy bags under his eyes from having to take care of the twins the entire night on his own when he failed put them to bed after they spent the entire night watching one of Ushijima’s games. The twins had gotten more enthusiastic about volleyball lately, even asking Ushjima to spike for them on one occasion, much to the horror of his husband.

“Jackals!” Shouyou squeaked as Bokuto perched him on his shoulders, laughing loudly as he grinned, “Owls are the way to go kiddo!” Tooru and Hajime were being pushed in a stroller together, their mothers having given up carrying them on their backs the entire day. The two babies were having a mini fistfight, with Tooru waving around a Godzilla plushie which Hajime kept trying to bite.

“Groah groah!” Tooru yelped as Hajime grunted. Suga let a laugh as he ruffled the babies on the head, “I don’t think they would have Godzilla here, you two.”

“What do you want to see, Tobio?” Keiji asked, noticing the little boy was silent the entire time. Tobio hated huge crowds and the zoo was no exception; he clung onto Keiji’s legs for dear life, the older boy sighing as he hoisted him in his arms as he balanced the bentos in his other hand.

“Me don’t like people,” Tobio whispered as he sniffled.

“I don’t like crowds either, but we will be fine soon. Do you want to see the pandas?” he asked as Tobio’s eyes brightened ever so slightly before he gave an enthusiastic nod. Shouyou squealed to be put down on the ground, Suga reminding the boys to not let go of the kids as they went in, finally squeezing through the ticket aisles into the zoo.

The kids began to go wild once they were in the zoo, scampering off into multiple directions as the adults tried to keep them in check. The Kita twins sped off to the fox exhibit after managing to wriggle out of Kita’s grasp when he needed to go to the toilet, the poor man chasing after them until they bumped into a boy their age looking at the foxes too. After many hurried apologies between both adults, the twins managed to find a new friend in the boy, who reminded Keiji of the Tibetan fox that was lurking in its cage behind the glass.

Next stop was the giant panda, the kids letting out loud ohhs and ahhs as Tobio’s eyes sparkled. Keiji giggled at how cute he was pressing his nose against the glass, watching the large animal chew on bamboo leaves lazily as Shouyou tried to poke at it from the glass. Bokuto merely tried to hoist his nephew up to give him a closer look at the animal since the boy was so small, Shouyou making so much noise they were nearly kicked out of several exhibits multiple times.

When they arrived at the owl enclosure, Bokuto went crazy as he kept trying to find the owls. Since it was dark inside in order to help the animals fly about and interact with the guests, that gave Bokuto and Shouyou more opportunities to scare the animals out of their wits than actually interacting with them, nearly getting themselves kicked out when Bokuto tried to hug a great horned owl to show to Keiji. Keiji was glad for the darkness that hid the blush on his face, Tobio squawking at Shouyou that crows were better as the two toddlers squabbled.

“Whew! That was great!” Bokuto beamed as they finally made their way out of the owl enclosure. Keiji was glad to finally have some fresh air, filling his nose with something other than owl droppings when Suga called them over for lunch at some picnic tables. The man had already spread out the food that Takeda had prepared for them and Keiji felt his stomach growl when he saw sashimi and onigiri lined up inside. The Kita twins had already managed to grab onto onigiris, Osamu stuffing his face with them as Kita made sure he didn’t choke. Mrs Iwaizumi and Mrs Oikawa were feeding their babies milk, chatting lightly with one another as the two babies sucked away.

“Food!” Shouyou squeaked as he jumped onto the bench, scrabbling to grab some sashimi as Tobio fought his way through. Keiji quickly made sure he had his hands cleaned before letting him attack the food, Bokuto allowing Shouyou to dive straight in since he himself was too hungry to even care about cleanliness.

“Gwah! His cooking is so good!” Bokuto groaned as he bit into the onigiri. Keiji bit into one as well, the taste of tuna bringing peace to his stomach as he sighed with satisfaction. His stomach growled for more as Bokuto laughed at his shy expression, the boy reaching out to take more food as Tobio tried to snatch more sashimi from Shouyou.

“Where should we go after this? I think there is going to be a penguin show next. Shall we head there?” Suga asked the group as everyone nodded. Kita was calmly sipping some green tea whilst the twins behaved for once, eating their food quietly while the babies gurgled. Tooru and Hajime barely made a sound during the entire trip, opting to sleep and hold onto each other as their mothers chatted to one another.

Keiji almost wished he could be with his family once more, going to the zoo with his mother and father. This might be the very first time Tobio ever went to the zoo and seeing the kids with either one or both of their parents made him sad.

“Akaashi, are you ok?” Bokuto asked as Keiji smiled, “I’m ok, Bokuto-san. Thanks.” Suga had a wide smirk on his face as he gave Keiji a nudge in the shoulder, a naughty gleam in his eye that told Keiji he was in for a world of pain as Suga said, “How about you two go walk about the zoo and meet up with us for the penguin show later? You look like you could use some alone time.”

_“Curse you for playing cupid Suga!”_ Keiji screamed mentally as Bokuto let out a whoop of joy, the grin on his face so wide Keiji didn’t want to say no. He cast a glance at Tobio, who was giving Bokuto a murderous glare as Bokuto grinned before ruffling the toddler’s head.

“Don’t worry! Me and your niichan won’t be gone for too long,” Bokuto grinned as Tobio made a loud harrumph sound before turning away. Bokuto looked mildly shocked that a toddler hated him that much, Shouyou patting Bokuto on the arm to bring him with them as Suga pressed a finger to his lips, “This is a big boys trip only, Shouyou. We’re going to play with the animals later, how about that?”

“Rabbits!” the twins yelped as Tobio muttered, “Crows.” Shouyou gave a pout as they finished off their meal, Suga shooing the two older boys before they even had a chance to say anything as he mouthed to Keiji, “You got this!” Keiji felt his fac burn when he realised Bokuto was fiddling with the map which was upside down in his grasp, the ace frowning at it as he tried to find the aviary.

“Bokuto-san, the map is upside down,’ Keiji pointed out as the owlish boy gave a sheepish smirk before leading the way. The crowd had gotten thicker due to it being afternoon now, Keiji constantly trying to look out for Bokuto’s hair bobbing on top of the sea of heads. He bumped into people multiple times, earning glares from them when he felt a hand curl around his own, the hand enveloping his as Bokuto grinned, “Cant have you getting lost right?”

_“Why is he so smooth at making me go mad?”_ Keiji whined internally as they finally made it into the aviary. When they entered, Keiji had to cover his eyes to prevent the sun from blinding him when a mirage of birds flew into the air, Bokuto’s smile widening as he pointed out each one in turn. Even though Keiji never understood what he was saying about the birds, he found his voice and presence very comforting.

“I used to come here all the time as a kid. Mum was a bird trainer and she used to train owls all the time. Whenever I came to visit her on one of her shows, I would always want to hold onto the great horned owl.” Keiji noted how he used past tense when referring to his parents, making him wonder if he too had lost his parents when a bird flew into his face, nearly making Keiji stumble back when Bokuto caught him in his arms.

The angle of the lighting made Bokuto look like an angel, his yellow eyes piercing through his heart as the stunned look on his face melted him into a puddle. His arms were supporting his back nicely, his hand holding onto the small of his back as he gently brought him back to his feet.

“Whoops. Parakeets can be a bit crazy,” Bokuto laughed as Keiji tried to school his face back into his normally calm one when he heard a voice speaking over the speakers enveloping the encloser.

“Attention. We have a missing child’s report by Sugawara Koushi. Looking for two four-year olds, one with black hair and dark blue eyes named Akaashi Tobio and one boy with orange hair named Hinata Shouyou. If seen, please bring them to the lost and found office at the zoo entrance. I repeat.”

They went on a date for not even an hour and those two were already giving them trouble? Keiji resigned himself to his fate, making his way out of the aviary to collect his younger brother while Bokuto muttered about his sister would murder him if she ever found out he lost her son in the zoo (not that Shouyou would shut up about it when he got home).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone wants to rant about life without Haikyuu, feel free to go wild in the comments. I need to rant my feelings too!!! (although it may be best to wait about 24 hours before posting so those who haven't read it due to life commitments and time zone differences won't be spoiled).
> 
> Life after Haikyuu chapter 402 finally begins... what will the view be from now on?


	8. The misadventures of Tobio and Shouyou

Tobio watched his brother’s retreating back, his tiny heart aching to be held by him. He had never been separated from his brother other than being in the nursery, the zoo’s large space making him feel anxious. He wanted to be held in Keiji’s arms and be spoiled and protected from the world, not be stuck with his annoying nursery playmates and most of all, Shouyou’s whining.

“Shut up, boke,” Tobio muttered as Suga hushed him, “Tobio, you shouldn’t be saying those words at such a young age!”

“Did you say that in the nursery? I don’t think Keiji is someone to use such language in front of a child,” Kita pointed out as Suga looked flabbergasted, “What do you mean?! I’m innocent and pure!”

“You look at Daichi-sensei like you want to pounce on him every single day,” Kita sighed as Suga turned a bright red. The female teachers giggled as the nursery teacher tried to explain his actions when Tobio tugged on his shirt, his face pouting as he scowled, “Me wanna be with niichan.”

“No can do, kiddo. Your big brother is on a date.”

“Da… to?” the toddler as Mrs Iwaizumi chided to him, “He’s too young to know about dating!”

“A date is when two people who like each other go out with each other,” Suga grinned, the angelic smile on his face making Tobio squirm with jealousy. He wanted to be on a date with his brother too, why did the stupid owl looking man have to take him away?

“Tobi! Let’s go on a date!” Shouyou chirped as Tobio scowled, “Shouyou baka!”

“Meanie!” Shouyou whined as Tooru let out a cry from the pram, Hajime following suit as their mothers quickly excused themselves to go to the toilet to change their diapers, leaving the men to care for the kids. The twins had finished eating and were now playing a little game among themselves, pointing out people and calling them lame as their father tried his best to make them keep quiet. Suga merely watched them with amusement, laughing to himself until his phone rang. The teacher quickly picked it out of his pocket, his eyes widening as he saw the contact details before pressing the answer button as his face turned cherry red and his voice went up one octave.

“Hey, Daichi! What's up? Oh, I’m out at the moment. Eh, you want to go drinking with Azumane-sensei and I? I thought you know my liquor tolerance is bad,” Suga pouted into the phone as Tobio focused his attention on his brother’s retreating back. Keiji was far into the crowd by now, although Tobio could make out his brother just a tiny bit. He slowly slid off the bench, his feet tapping onto the ground as he stepped forward, gripping his shirt as he willed himself to go forward.

His heart was pounding hard as the people moved about him. His anxiety began to rise as he thought of how the crowd could swallow him whole or take away his niichan forever, the little boy shaking in fear as he tried to chase after him. His feet remained rooted on the ground as he tried to move, mentally scolding himself to walk when a tiny hand clasped onto his and a high pitched said, “Come on, Tobio! Let’s go on a date too!”

Shouyou took charge and began to drag him forward, the two toddlers making their way through the crowd. Tobio’s heart hammered in his chest as they weaved through the crowd, the adults so large they looked like they were a forest of giants Tobio wanted to squeeze his eyes shut and run away to his brother but he kept them wide open so he could find him and get out of there.

Shouyou was a shining ball of light in front of him, his eyes determined to find their target. The boy even looked happy as he skipped forward, Tobio nearly slamming into several pairs of legs when they finally made it to an open spot. Tobio quickly let out a breath he had been holding in for too long, panting as he looked up to see that his brother and Bokuto were nowhere in sight.

“Where is niichan?” Tobio asked out loud as Shouyou yelled, “Koutarou-nii! Where are you?!” That drew several stares at them, some of the adults stopping to watch as the two children called out for their siblings. Tobio was beginning to feel panicked about the situation, his eyes darting left and right to try and find a familiar mop of black hair when he spotted someone with black hair nearby. He let out a wail and barrelled towards the person, nearly knocking them off their feet when he realised that the person was much too short to be his brother.

“What are you doing?” the mystery person scowled as he turned. Tobio immediately let out a yelp as Shouyou ran towards him, throwing out his arms in an attempt to protect him as the boy scowled even more. His mouth formed a thin line behind his mask, his eyes looking at the toddlers as though they were vermin. He quickly rubbed his clothes before removing hand sanitiser from his pocket when a pair of adults approached him, the man looking very much like him although much friendlier as he said, “Kiyoomi, don’t be so mean to the kids!”

“They touched me and judging from them, they must be filthy.”

  
“Kiyoomi!” his father sighed as the two toddlers squeaked. Tobio hid behind Shouyou as the smaller boy tried to make himself bigger, Kiyoomi’s mother squatting down in front of them to bring herself to eye level as she beamed, “I’m Saksa Miyuki. Sorry about my son’s behaviour. Are you two little ones lost?”

“Lost?” Shouyou echoed as Kiyoomi sighed, “She means you two can’t find your family, idiots.”

“Kiyoomi, language!” his father groaned as Tobio bit his lip, trying to stop himself from crying as his lip wobbled.

“Keiji-niichan. Me want Keiji-niichan,” he stammered as Shouyou chirped, “We are on a date!”

“A date?” Mrs Sakusa giggled as Shouyou nodded, “Koutarou-niichan and Keiji-niichan are on a date too so we’re on a date to find them!”

“They’re so precious!” Mrs Sakusa swooned as Mr Sakusa frowned, “Then again, where are their guardians?” Just before the kids could say anything, an announcement filled the air as a woman spoke into the microphone.

“Attention. We have a missing child’s report by Sugawara Koushi. Looking for two four-year olds, one with black hair and dark blue eyes named Akaashi Tobio and one boy with orange hair named Hinata Shouyou. If seen, please bring them to the lost and found office at the zoo entrance. I repeat.”

The Sakusa family turned to look at the two toddlers, the boys wondering what on earth was going on as Mrs Sakusa held out her hands to the two of them, “Come on, you two. We’ll take you to your parents.”

  
“But niichan said we shouldn’t follow strangers,” Shouyou squeaked as Kiyoomi groaned, “How stupid can you be? You idiots are lost!” His father had resigned himself to hearing his son speak like that, not saying a word as Mrs Sakusa smiled at them. Tobio could remember a woman smiling at him just like that a long time ago, although he couldn’t place who it was.

But when he placed his hand in hers, Tobio almost felt himself tear up at the familiar warmth filling his heart.

Who used to hold him in their arms like that in the past?

…

Keiji and Bokuto burst into the office to see the two toddlers alive and well, a frantic looking Suga bowing low to a family who had their son hiding behind his father’s leg. The boy was scowling at the children as though they were vermin, Tobio scowling at him with a vengeance as Suga continued to apologise.

“Thank you so much for finding them and sorry for the trouble! I looked away for a moment and then they disappeared!”

“Don’t worry. We all make mistakes like this,” Mr Sakusa smiled as Kiyoomi muttered, “Rats.” Tobio stuck his tongue out at him as the twins, who were hanging onto Kita’s pants stared at the boy with curiosity. Atsumu especially seemed intrigued by the boy, pointing at his shirt that had the name Ushijima splashed across the back with the Scweiden Adlers logo on it.

“Papa-san!” Atsumu yelped as Sakusa scowled, “I’m not your papa.”

“Sorry about him. He’s their father,” Kita corrected as Kiyoomi’s eyes widened, “You’re related to _the_ Ushijima Wakatoshi?”

“Papa cool! You lame!” Atsumu chirped as Kita clapped a hand over his son’s mouth as Kiyoomi growled, “What did you say?”

“Alright, we better get going then. You don’t want to miss the penguin show, don’t you Kiyoomi?” Mrs Sakusa interrupted before things could get heated, shooing her family away before her son could pick a fight with the toddlers any further. The family said their goodbyes before heading off, Keiji heading towards Tobio to envelop him in his arms as Tobio wailed his name.  
  
“Niicha. Me sowwy for going on a date!” he wailed as Keiji’s perked an eyebrow, “Date?”

“Sorry! I took a call from Daichi-sensei and the two just disappeared!” Suga wailed as Bokuto held onto Shouyou, “Ah, you two went on a date? How cute?”

  
“Kou-nii, don’t go with Keiji-nii! Me want you to pway with me! He take you away from me!” Shouyou wailed as Bokuto bobbed him on the nose, “Alright then. How about I spike to you when we get home?” That made Shouyou squeal when Kita coughed, interrupting their little reunion as he glanced at his watch, “We still have time for the penguin show. How about we go and watch it?”

  
“Sure,” everyone chirped, although Suga looked as though he had his soul sucked out of his body as he followed the group. The entire time, Tobio remained fastened onto Keiji’s shirt, curling up like a koala as his brother ruffled his hair.

“A date huh?” he thought as he turned to see Bokuto laughing away with a squealing Shouyou on his back, the little boy laughing and giggling as Bokuto held him over the crowd to see the penguins.

His heart fluttered in his chest when Tobio pressed a hand to his cheek, giving him a pat as he whispered, “Sorry for your date go bad.” Keiji laughed softly as he pressed a kiss on his brother’s forehead, Tobio blushing as he gave him another peck on the cheek, “Don’t worry, Tobio. I had fun when it lasted.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just had to throw kid Sakusa into this fufufu.


	9. Little road trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear the amount of stress given to my irl has shaved off a good 20% of my lifespan at this rate...
> 
> On a side note, remember this ultra cute song from Gakuen Babysitters? [Parade with Barp song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNqCPzyhbF0)

Keiji smiled as he pulled on his uniform, pulling on the white dress shirt before moving to button his cuffs. After folding up his collar, he hung the blue tie with yellow stripes around his neck, his fingers nimbly tying it up into a perfect triangle shape as Tobio watched from the bed with awe. The little boy let out a little ohh sound as Keiji finished tying his tie and slipping on his blazer, checking it for any wrinkles before Tobio lifted up his arms to be dressed.

“Come on, Tobio. What do you want to wear for the new school year?” he asked as Tobio squeaked, “Red falcons shirt!”

“That shirt is shall be,” Keiji smiled, seeing that the little boy had already set it on the bed, although he was failing miserably at putting it on the right way. Tobio still had to be helped into his clothes, although Keiji had begun to treasure the moments knowing that it will only be a matter of time where Tobio would be doing everything on his own. 

He definitely wouldn’t miss the diapers and potty training though. He had to burn through so many internet articles and Youtube videos to try and get his brother to potty train and put on his diapers without training poop across the house at the young age of 13.

“Mum and dad in heaven, I hope you’re having fun now,” Keiji thought as he finished dressing Tobio and putting on his backpack on his shoulders, the two boys making their way down for breakfast as the smell of fresh Japanese rice filled the air.

Today was the first day of the new school year and Keiji would now be a second year. Tobio, on the other hand, was still stuck in the nursery with the other kids and would be moving up into the elementary section of the academy in a year’s time.

After a good meal of salmon and rice, the two boys made their way to Fukurodani Academy. The cherry blossoms were now in full bloom, Keiji smiling as his brother reached out to grab a stray petal as they walked through the school gates. A large sign welcoming the new students was placed against the brick wall, students filing in with their parents with nervous expressions while returning students were busy greeting each other for the new school year.

“Good morning, Kita-sensei!” Keiji greeted with a bow as he spotted the teacher leading some of the new students into the gym. He smiled as Tobio hid in the folds of Keiji’s shirt, the older boy sighing as he urged him to say hello only for him to grip his shirt even harder.

  
“Do you plan to join any clubs this year? I don’t recall you being in any last year.”

“Well, technically I’m part of the babysitters club, which is what Headmaster Ukai asked me to do. We’re not really a club since we don’t have enough members but since I have to take care of the kids, I won’t be joining anything else.”

“Bokuto-kun really wanted you to join the volleyball club after you mentioned being a setter,” Kita smiled softly as Keiji shook his head. taking care of the kids involved staying in all day after classes ended until nearly 7 pm. There was no way he would be able to cram in time for volleyball and besides, he felt he wasn’t even good enough to be on the team. Fukurodani was one of the running champions for years ever since Bokuto joined the club, having lost to Itachiyama and Inarizaki for the past few years to take the top three spots in nationals.

Yes, there was no freaking way he could join.

“Well, I have to attend to the students. Congratulations on starting a new school year,” Kita bidded him goodbye before heading inside, the ceremony beginning in full swing as Keiji quickly made his way to the nursery to drop Tobio off. After a hurried goodbye to him and the others, Keiji finally managed to find his name on the school board before finding it and a very excited Konoha, who turned out to be his classmate before dragging him to class.

“Man, I’m so stoked you’re in the same class as me again!”

“That doesn’t mean I will let you copy my homework,” Keiji reminded him as the boy groaned, “Sheesh, I’m a busy man playing for nationals!”

“Then make time.”

“So mean!” Konoha groaned when the door slammed open to reveal a very excited Bokuto. Some of the girls squealed as he entered the classroom, a big stack of volleyball club flyers in hand as he walked over to where Keiji and Konoha were seated.

“Hey hey hey! Morning Akaashi! Konoha, you’re helping me with the flyers, I didn’t expect Yuki-pi to print so many!”

“Come on, man! You made me do so much spiking this morning that my arms ache! How the hell am I supposed to even play later?” Konoha groaned as Bokuto laughed, “We’re young so we’re supposed to be full of energy!” Konoha resigned himself to his fate as he dragged himself out of his chair, Bokuto slinging an arm around his neck before grinning at Keiji.

“Say, you wanna come over and see our first club session of the year? I can introduce you to the rest of the guys.”

“Thank you Bokuto-san, but I have to go to the nursery after this.”

“Aw, come on! You can bring the kids! They would love it, especially Shou! That kid loves volleyball!” Bokuto begged as Keiji sighed, “We’ll see.” Bokuto beamed even more as he dragged an annoyed Konoha out of the room, Keiji wishing he could bury himself in a hole for turning down one of the few times he could actually see Bokuto in action and possibly looking ripped in gym clothes.

“Earth to Keiji! Are you home? Yohoo!” Suga called as he waved a hand in front of Keiji’s face. The boy snapped out of his reverie to find Shouyou and Tobio hanging onto his back, both of them slapping on his cheeks that he realised were now stinging very badly. The twins were curled up in his lap, both of them poking in his tummy while the babies chortled from Suga’s arms. The daycare worker looked worried as Keiji shook his head, nearly shaking off the two boys hanging onto him as Suga asked, “Come to think of it, aren’t you going to join any clubs?”

“I’m working full time here as a babysitter. I can’t do anything else,” Keiji groaned as Suga frowned, “That old man Ukai is too harsh sometimes! He needs to live a little dammit! Well, let you live a little. Alright, how about we do something to make Keiji better, kids?” There was a chorus of voices as the kids chattered among each other, Keiji wondering just how zoned out he had been to see his brother looking up in worry as he held his arms out.

“Niichan sad. You wanna wear my shirt? Falcons strong!” Tobio chirped as Keiji patted his head lightly, “Thanks Tobio. But I won’t be able to fit into it.”

“I swear, Tobio has the worse scowl on earth but he’s freaking cute,” Suga cooed as he finished writing something on a signboard and held it up in the air.

“Alright kids! Let’s go for a little trip! All of you hold hands, stand in a straight line, and off we go!” Suga called as the kids quickly formed a line, Shouyou in the front with Tobio in tow. Osamu and Atsumu fought to hold onto Shouyou’s hand first, settling with Osamu having to hold onto Tobio while Atsumu clung onto Suga’s pants with a small scowl. The babies remained hung on Suga, Tooru and Hajime making little noises as Keiji stood at the back, worried that the kids would get trampled by incoming students as Suga grinned, “Don’t worry so much! I bring them out during this time of year all the time!”

“That doesn’t mean they would survive in a forest of giants,” Keiji groaned as they began to march out into the hallway towards the main building, the kids surprisingly managing to hold hands the entire time.

As they made their little procession into the main school buildings, some students began to coo and aww at the little kids, some of the girls reaching out to pat the kids on the head. Some of them were even trying to snap pictures for their Instagram, Keiji torn between telling them to not take their pictures and craving to take some of his own given how cute the little ones were when Shouyou let out a little command, “Time for a parade!”

“Yay!” the twins yelped as Tobio looked on, a bit confused at what was going on as the kids began to do a little dance, “Fartin’! Fartin’! Brap! Brap! brap!” Keiji had to prevent himself from snickering as his little brother tried to copy them, although the embarrassment on his tiny face was so evident he was turning red as a tomato as he muttered, “Bop.”

The little dance continued across the span of the walk until they finally made it to the gym, the sound of volleyballs slapping against the ground and boys shouting filling the air. Keiji felt a twinge of nostalgia as familiar words filled his ears, the stray voices of Konoha and Bokuto mixing into them as he heard someone shout, “Bokuto!”

“Kou-nii!” Shouyou yelped as he raced inside, Suga letting out a yelp as the group raced inside the gymnasium. Keiji barely managed to scoop the twins into his arms when he saw Shouyou collide with one very tall volleyball player, Tobio hitting his head into a boy’s leg as the two of them turned.

“Oya oya, what do we have here?” one of them snickers. The taller of the two had a very bad bedhead and a smirk on his face that made Keiji want to give him a punch. The smile on his face was unnerving as he took in the little boy that had slammed into him, Shouyou rubbing his forehead when small tears began to peak out of his eyes.

“Hey yoshi Yoshi. Don’t cry now, Kuroo-nii has got you,” the boy cooed as the puddinghead next to him pinch his arm, “Kuroo, you sound like a perv, please don’t say that.”

“What? I’m trying to help!” Kuroo yelped when Keiji heard a boisterous laugh coming from the side as a body flew through the air. Keiji momentarily saw white feathers fluttering before his eyes, the vision parting to make way for Bokuto soaring through the air. He had his arm whipped back and a big smirk on his face, the words “Ways of the Ace” printed on the shirt he wore as he yelled, “Hey hey hey!” A boy had just set a toss for the ace as he brought his arm down, hitting the ball with a resounding smack as it slammed onto the other side of the court. Konoha let out a yelp as he dove out of the way, Daichi yelling for him to get the ball instead of running away when Konoha shouted, “I don’t want to get killed!”

“Cool!” Shouyou yelped as Bokuto turned to see his nephew skittering against the floor towards his direction. The boy laughed as he scooped his nephew into his arms, ruffling his hair and ignoring the fact he was bathing him in sweat as he grinned, “Hey Shouyou! Watcha doing here!”

“That’s the little runt of a cousin you kept talking about dude? He really is tiny!” Kuroo said as he approached the ace. Shouyou squeaked as the boy poked his cheeks, the pudding head from before sighing as he reached to drag him away from the boy.

“Sorry about that. The kids just went wild,” Suga apologised as Kita and Daichi stepped forward. Keiji forgot that Kita was the advisor to the team while Daichi was the team coach, Daichi sighing at how Suga always seemed to bump into him at the worst times when Bokuto shouted Keiji’s name.

Maybe he was the slightest bit happy that they went to see the volleyball club after all.


	10. A sick twin doesn't keep the other at bay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if I will have time to post this tomorrow so just going to post this one day earlier. Writing for this story is going swimmingly well at the moment so that's good news for you guys! Finally managed to get the chapters and plot into order after rewatching the anime (might even rewatch Haikyuu since heck, why not?)
> 
> And we're at chapter 10 wow! I didn't expect it to drag until here and after writing out the chapters, I think this story could come up to 21 chapters in total so stay tuned for those!
> 
> On a side note, hope you guys don't mind but I tend to switch between nursery and daycare most of the time so don't mind that...
> 
> Until then, enjoy cute babies and some very exasperated adults and teenagers!

With the new season coming in came with it the seasonal flu, and the first victim to it was Osamu.

Keiji was cleaning up the daycare nursery when the door jingled open, indicating the first arrival of the day. When Keiji looked up from his work, he was stunned to see Ushijima towering over him, mask and sunglasses in place with a delighted looking Atsumu in his arms.

“Good morning, Keiji-kun. I’m dropping off Atsumu for today.” The twin had the widest grin on his face as Keiji asked, “Is Osamu sick?”

“Indeed he is. Shinsuke is at home taking care of him now. I will be here in the evening to pick him up after my volleyball practice. Sorry for intruding on you like this.”

“Don’t worry about it Ushijima-san. The V League season has just begun. You need to get ready soon.” Ushijima gave a boy as his son squirmed in his arms, “Papa! Let me down! Me wanna pway with Tobio!”

“Don’t play too hard,” Ushijima said as he set his son down, the small boy tearing through the room and grabbing Tobio on the arm to drag to play with one of the miniature volleyballs Ushijima had gifted the daycare in the corner. After Ushijima had decided to try and bond with his sons through volleyball, Atsumu had taken it to himself to learn how to toss, specifically picking Tobio to be his partner. While the raven boy didn’t seem to mind being tossed to, he often looked as though he wanted to be playing with anyone but Atsumu since the boy often tossed badly enough to bonk him in the head.

“Atsumu, don’t toss too high!” Keiji called just as the twin managed to throw the ball out of the window and hitting someone square in the face. There was a wail as Keiji looked up to see who had gotten hit in the face, Shouyou holding onto his face as Bokuto and Kuroo leered at him.

“Oya, what do we have here? A little setter in the making?” Kuroo sneered as Keiji sighed. The teenager had begun to come over quite a bit to annoy the living shit out of him for some reason, although he guessed it was partially to actually try to play cupid for the two boys. While he appreciated the senior trying to be ‘nice’, he wished he could just mind his own business and do whatever cats do.

“Akaashi! Morning!” Bokuto yelled as Akaashi internally winced at the loudness of it before returning with a curt nod. Kuroo merely grinned at him as he approached them, giving Hinata’s forehead a good rub until the little boy stopped crying.

“Can you please stop trying to drop him off through the window?” Keiji groaned as Bokuto squawked, “Akaashi! I need to go halfway around the block to get to the door! This way is much faster!”

“You can run 5km in 20 minutes but you can’t walk for a few minutes to get to the door?” Kuroo chuckled as Bokuto gave him a kick in the shin. The cat let out a yowl as Bokuto gave his nephew a gentle peck on the head, promising to come to get him after practice before dropping him gently on the floor. The orange-haired boy gave a sniffle, shooting a glare at Atsumu who looked slightly sorry for what he had done.

“Atsumu, you need to apologise to Shouyou for hitting him,” Keiji said as Atsumu muttered, “Sorry, Shou-chan. Forgive me?” Shouyou gave a hiccup before giving Atsumu a hug, Tobio visibly bristling at the gesture as Shouyou chirped, “We pway volleyball?”

“Volleyball!” Atsumu yelped as Keiji watched them run around the room more than playing with the volleyball. Tobio watched the run for a bit as Keiji squatted next to his brother, giving him a pat on the head as he asked, “Arent you going to play with them, Tobio?”

“Me don’t like Tsumu. Tsumu meanie.”

“Do you want me to play with you for a bit? I’m done cleaning the daycare,” Keiji offered as his brother’s eyes twinkled. Keiji picked up one of the spare balls and began to toss to him until Suga came over. While the man had already received the call from Kita telling him that Osamu would be home today, he still found himself eying the younger twin, watching to see if he would try and call out for his brother. As much as the twins bickered, Suga knew that deep down, they were inseparable.

“Atsumu, are you missing Osamu?” Suga asked as he was changing Tooru’s diapers. Keiji was busy trying to catch a crawling Hajime, trying to put on a pair on diapers on him as the little one stomped his way through the nursery. Shouyou and Tobio were now playing a game of rolling the ball towards each other, Shouyou’s squeals loud as Tobio grunted. Atsumu had been seated across, watching them play when Suga called him out.

“Me ok! Me don’t need baka Samu!” Atsumu squeaked as Suga chuckled, “Really. What did you dad say about you coming to nursery without him?”

“He said I come, Samu get better! If I be a good boy, he can come tomorrow!” Atsumu brought up a tiny finger as Suga laughed to himself. Kita had been a bit worried on the phone about how the younger twin would cope without his brother but so far, so good.

“Alright, Keiji-niichan needs to go to class now. How about we say goodbye?” Suga smiled as the kids waved their goodbyes. Keiji sighed, finally able to put on the diapers to a squirming Hajime. The baby gave him a chomp on the hand before crawling over to Tooru, landing on top of the other baby’s stomach as Keiji quickly excused himself for class. Once the boy was out, Suga turned to the kids, a mischievous grin on his face as he said, “Who’s up for a game of catch-the-monster?”

…

Kita Atsumu may be a four-year-old, but he already knew that there was something between him and Osamu that couldn’t quite be explained.

The two of them had been left on the doorstep of an orphanage when they were babies and around the time they were two years old, they were adopted by Ushijima and Kita. While Ushijima wasn’t around most of the time, Kita made it up by spending all the time he could with them, showering them with love and teachings.

One thing that Atsumu was grateful for that he never wanted to admit was how much he loved Osamu. As much as his older twin seemed to get away with everything, without him, Atsumu would have been lost. Without him noticing, he had begun to copy whatever his big brother did; trying to play volleyball, trying to be nice, even the smallest things such as how they dress. While their parents would normally dress them up in different clothes so they would be easier to differentiate, Atsumu would sometimes sneak some of Osamu’s items into his closet and wear them instead.

He was always with him; in school, in the shower, everywhere they went, the twins were never apart until now.

So when Atsumu woke up to find Shouyou’s sock clutched in his fist, he slowly rubbed his sleepy eyes, trying to find his older brother. Most of the kids were still asleep, Tobio with his fist clutching on a stuffed crow while Shouyou had drool escaping from his mouth. The babies were curled up against Suga, the older man sleeping as Hajime clutched onto Tooru like a pillow.

“Osamu?” Atsumu whispered as he looked around. Where was he? He should be here by his side. Atsumu slowly looked around once more before getting up, his tiny feet pattering against the floor as he slowly pushed the door open and walked outside.

“Osamu? Osamu?’ he called as he walked out of the nursery and down the main road of the campus. Some students passing by stood and stare at the tiny boy making his way around, his eyes lost and filled with dread as he tried to search for his older brother. His tiny heart was already beating hard against his chest, tiny tears forming in his eyes as his voice became more warbled and choked as he tried to call out his brother.

“Osamu? Where are you Osamu?” he sniffled, rubbing his hands against his face when he felt himself collide with a big body. He yelped as he landed on his butt, the person letting out a hoot of surprise before a familiar voice called out to him, “Atsumu-chan? What are you doing out here on your own?” A shadow fell over him as Bokuto knelt down to face the tiny toddler, whose face was now red as he tried no to cry. Atsumu pressed his hands against his face, trying not to cry but failing to do so as his sniffles became full-on wails.

“Samu! Me want Osamu!” he wailed as Bokuto slowly picked him up and gave him a little hug.

“There there little man. Everything is going to be fine. Hey, how about we go wait for Kita-sensei and Atsumu out front at the school gates? I’m sure they would want to meet you,” Bokuto beamed as Atsumu’s eyes widened, “Promise?” He held out a tiny hand, Bokuto chuckling as he wrapped his finger around it, the boy wrapping his finger in his hand as the ace grinned.

“Promise.”

…

Keiji groaned as he walked back to the nursery from class, his footsteps heavy as he thought of the ton of chemistry homework he had to do. He didn’t know what possessed him to be a part of the college preparatory class but his brain was already beginning to kill him from the amount of work he had to do.

“I hope Atsumu is ok,” he thought when he heard a buzzing noise in his coat pocket. He picked up his phone to see Bokuto’s phone number ringing on the screen, his finger sliding quickly to answer the call as he tried to compose himself, “Bokuto-san.”

“Ah, Akaashi! I have Atsumu here with me so if you can tell Suga-san that, that would be great. I dunno how long it would take for Kita-san to come to pick him up but Atsumu had been crying earlier and I didn’t want to leave him alone.”

“I will come to you,” Keiji said as he ended the call, making his way to the school gates to see Bokuto holding a sniffling Atsumu in his arms. The little boy was curled into a ball, Bokuto doing his best to try and uplift his spirits as he beamed at Keiji.

“Keiji-niichan?” Atsumu whimpered as Keiji knelt down in front of him. The boy looked so sad as he took his hands into his, giving him a squeeze as he asked, “Do you miss Osamu?”

“Hmm.”

“Don’t worry. Osamu should be better by now. How about we wait here for your dad to come pick you up and you can see Osamu? I will ask Suga-san to call Kita-sensei.”

“He already called me,” Kita called as Keiji snapped up his head. the teacher was standing in front of the school gates, a smile on his face as he held the older twin in his arms. Osamu appeared to be sniffling as he turned to face his younger twin, his face red as he yelped, “Atsumu!”

“Osamu!” Atsumu wailed as Kita gently set his son down so he could run to his brother and hug him tight. The two twins wailed as they held onto each other, Bokuto letting out a little aww sound as Keiji felt his heart break.

“Osamu is all better now so I thought I could bring him here to pick Atsumu up. I didn’t expect him to miss him this much,” Kita chuckled as he gently picked up the two boys and gave them pecks on the heads, “There there. You’re alright. You’re both alright. Shall we go home now?”

“Daddy!” they cried out as they held onto Kita’s shirt, the teacher giving them a hug before bowing to the two students, “Thank you for taking care of my sons. If you will excuse us.”

“Thank you, Kita-sensei,” Keiji said as he bowed his head low, the teacher making his way down the road as Bokuto sighed, “It’s amazing to be a dad, isn’t it? wonder how my kids would be like in the future.”

“I’m sure you would be a great father. You’re already a good uncle to Shouyou after all.”

“Really, Akaashi? Do you really mean it?!” Bokuto yelped, his eyes shining brightly as Keiji smiled internally.

“If you learn how to control your mood swings that is.”

“Akaashi!”

Two hours later, Ushijima showed up to pick up his son only to find out his husband had forgotten to tell him he had already done so. Keiji truly felt sorry at how crestfallen Ushijima had looked about it and hoped he could have some bonding time with the kids once he gets home.


	11. Study time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My fingers hurt so bad after I cut myself with a knife whilst cooking arghh (on the brihgt side, it gave me inspiration for an OsaAka fanfic fufu.

“Bokuto-san, you are aware that I am a year below you right?” Keiji sighed as Bokuto clapped his hands in front of him, already in a kneeling position. The older boy whined as he begged the younger boy, getting on his knees preparing to do a zarei as he begged one more time, “Please Akaashi! Teach me!”

Keiji had no idea on how it had devolved from a simple changing the babies diapers to Bokuto begging for his life to have some tutoring for the upcoming exams. Keiji always had an inkling that the boy wasn’t as smart as he was on the court (well, as long as a volleyball was in front of him, that got his brain to work). Keiji may be in the preparatory class for college but to teach someone an entire year above him, that was a new level of insane. And not to mention he would have to do his own studying.

“Bokuto-san, why don’t you ask Kuroo-san to teach you?”

“I tried but that sly cat told me he has a ‘private session’ with Kenma so I can’t! Please, you’re my only hope! Even my sister doesn’t want to teach me, saying that I am a lost cause!” the boy whined as Suga laughed from the corner, “Not helping, Bokuto-kun.” Keiji pinched the bridge of his nose, blowing slowly from it as he tried to form his thoughts. If Bokuto were to fail his exams, which always seemed to almost happen whenever he had one, he would lose his volleyball scholarship and get kicked off the team. To make matters worse, qualifiers for the Interhigh tournament was coming up in a month and with them needing their ace to secure a spot in the already competitive Tokyo stage, Bokuto needed everything in his power to score at least a 40 for his exam.

Keiji groaned as he saw the sad state that was Bokuto Koutarou in front of him, his normal upright hair now wilted as he begged. Keiji wondered what law of physics governed that boy’s hair; it seemed to be an entity of its own to be able to shift shapes according to the boy’s mood.

“Fine. But I have a few conditions,” Keiji said as Bokuto yelped, “Really? Thanks so much, Akaashi!”

“Bokuto-san, you’re still holding Tooru’s dirty diaper in your hand.”

“Gah! You’re right and it stinks!”

…

“Why niichan has to go?” Tobio whined for the 10th time ever since Keiji told the toddler that he needed to head out. With the risk of being distracted by Tobio in the house, Keiji had asked Bokuto to meet him in his sister’s house after the boy told him she would be out for the day. In exchange, Shouyou could come over to their house to play with Tobio; surprisingly, Ukai had been more than happy to accommodate the boisterous toddler in his abode for the two boys to study.

_“As the person giving the scholarship and knowing full well how important you are to the team, you better buck up your grades and get your ass on the court. I won’t have Itachiyama beating our asses again. Those damn weasels are going down this year,” the old man had growled, a wicked grin on his face as Bokuto physically trembled at the sight of him._

Keiji turned to pick up his brother, giving him a reassuring peck on the cheek as the boy squirmed, “Keiji-nii. Don’t go.”

“I will be home soon. You have Shouyou with you so you will have a lot of fun today.”

“Shouyou stupid!” Tobio muttered although Keiji didn’t miss the tiny blush and the smile playing on his brother’s lips as he popped him on the ground. The toddler gripped onto his brother’s pants, following him the entire way to the front entrance where Bokuto was now waiting with a squirming and squealing Shouyou in his arms. The orange-haired boy seemed to think that he had entered a wonderland, his eyes bright and sparkly as he babbled on to his uncle.

“Uncle Kou, the house is so big! Can we live here, please?” he begged as Bokuto chuckled, “No can do kiddo. You need to be rich to stay in this house.”

“When I’m older, I make loooooots of money! We stay here!” Shouyou chirped as Bokuto laughed before ruffling his hair, “Sure will kiddo.” The owlish boy’s golden eyes raised to meet Keiji, who gave him a nod and a bow as Tobio squirmed behind his leg.

“Morning, Akaashi! Yo, Tobio,” Bokuto grinned as the boy bared his teeth at him before letting out a growl. Keiji sighed as Bokuto set Shouyou down on the floor, letting the boy barrel towards his friend to pull him into a tight hug, “Tobi, we have loooooots of fun!”

“Bokuto baka,” Tobio murmured as Bokuto looked taken aback. Keiji quickly told the young boy off and to mind his manners, giving him a pinch on the cheek for reassurance when Takeda spoke up, “Boys, if you want to study, you should leave now. The weather forecast isn’t great and you need a while to walk.”

“Alright. Well then, I will be going, Tobio,” Keiji said, Takeda reaching to bring the two toddlers into his arms. Shouyou gave his uncle a cheery wave, Tobio giving Bokuto one more scowl before growling, “Don’t hurt niichan!”

“I won’t! we’re just studying!” Bokuto yelped as Keiji cast his brother a glance, shutting him up before walking out of the door.

“Make sure you two study!” Takeda called after their retreating backs as Keiji tried not to think of what he might actually mean. He could already imagine the man giving him a knowing smile, Bokuto’s whistling not helping as they made the walk back to the Hinata household.

Compared to the mansion he now lived in, the Hinata home was a small but comfortable abode consisting of a flat with three bedrooms. One of them belonged to Bokuto, another for Shouyou and the last being Bokuto’s sister’s room. The place was decorated with toys littered across the floor, Keiji gingerly picking his way through the mess as he tried to fight the urge to clean it up. The place screamed Shouyou and Bokuto; volleyballs strewn all over, pictures depicting Shouyou and Bokuto in volleyball matches as well as family pictures of the Hinata family were hung on the walls. One of them was of a man with bright orange hair much like his son and a wide grin on his face. His arm was slung around a shorter woman with black hair and golden eyes. Shouyou was wedged in between them, a bright smile on his face as he posed for the camera in a Little Falcons onesie.

“Haruki-san is often overseas due to his volleyball career and sis wanted to raise Shouyou in Japan so they’ve been living mostly on their own most of the year until he comes back during the offseason. My mum and dad are in the US working so they let me stay here since they thought it would be better than leaving me to my own devices in the dorms,” Bokuto said as he opened the door to his room. Keiji already expected what was coming but actually entering the room proved to be a new level of mad.

It was the typical set up of a teenagers room; smelly socks and gym clothes lay on the floor. What appeared to be empty energy drink bottles littered the surface of the small coffee table in the middle of the room and Keiji felt his stomach roll when he smelt the inside.

“Bokuto-san,” Keiji found himself growling, the older boy letting out a yelp as he noticed how angry he was, “Yes Akaashi?”

“We have to clean up the room before we can even start studying.”

…

Keiji thought teaching Bokuto would be a headache but guess that looks could be deceiving. Despite having the attention span of a rock, Bokuto was able to absorb what Keiji taught him quite easily. Keiji didn’t know if it was just because he was teaching him or if he was genuinely a good teacher; nevertheless, he hoped he was able to save Bokuto from a certain doom called exams as they went through the maths questions.

“Gah I had quadratic equations! Why do they even have this stuff? I don’t think we even need it in real life!” Bokuto groaned as he slammed his face onto the table. Keiji gave him a tap on the head with his pen, the boy’s head shooting up immediately as Keiji sighed, “Bokuto-san, just because we do not like something, doesn’t mean it won’t be useful.”

“Come on! The only thing we need in volleyball is how to go fwooh and swoosh! And then we hit the ball like bam and go pow!” Bokuto sighed as Keiji tried to stop himself from giggling. The ace truly acted purely on instinct and while other people might just find his antics weird, Keiji found them amusing and even cute.

“Hey, Keiji. Are you alright? Your face is red,” Bokuto asked as he pressed a hand onto the boy’s forehead. Keiji let out a squeak, colliding with the back of the bed as Bokuto quickly tried to steady him. In the process, he knocked the table over to the side and Bokuto gave a yelp, falling onto Keiji as the two of them tried to detangle themselves. Keiji had to fight the urge to look straight into Bokuto’s golden eyes as the owlish boy pressed his forehead against his, trying to check his temperature as the younger teen squirmed.

“Hm, you seem alright. Must just be me,” Bokuto muttered as Keiji tried to stop his heart from pounding. He was close; so close to just leaning forward and pecking him on the lips but that would be far too soon since they weren’t even dating. Keiji wasn’t well versed in the world of kissing or relationships but he was pretty sure dating came before everything else in the package.

Fighting off the blush in his cheeks, he quickly returned to studying, trying to ignore the blushing in his face as Bokuto stared at him quizzically.

_“Stupid owl. At least have something else other than volleyball in your brain before I go mad!”_

…

“Oya oya, I wonder how the two of them are doing now,” Kuroo smirked as he held Kenma against his chest. The pudding head setter was sitting in his lap, his back against Kuroo’s chest as he played on his Nintendo DS. The smaller boy didn’t say a word as he focused on his game, the books that lay scattered on the small study table barely even touched as Kuroo whined, “Come on Kenma! Say something!”

“Don’t meddle in people’s business Kuroo.”

“What? I’m trying to help the guy out! You know how Bokuto doesn’t know jack shit about anything other than volleyball!”  
  


“Maybe you should focus on your exams first before you worry about Bokuto.”

“As if I don’t know what Docosahexaenoic acid,” Kuroo wiggled his eyebrows as Kenma gave a sigh, “Nerd.”

“Kitten come on!” Kuroo whined as his arms circled around the small boy to give him a peck on the head. They had been childhood friends since forever and it only seemed natural for things to turn into what they were now. Kenma didn’t squirm as Kuroo littered his neck with kisses, his hand reaching to pluck the Nintendo DS out of his hands as he gave him a smirk.

“Now kitten, how about some smexy time?”

“Pervert.”


	12. Hinata and Tobio's playdate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Started a new OsaAka Thor fanfic and while I managed to write a lot about it, a little sad that no one seems to be reading it... whelp, let's just see how it goes. If you're a fan of the Thor films, this OsaAka fic is based on the first Thor movie where Osamu is Thor and Akaashi is Jane Foster : [Lightning Rod](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25675915/chapters/62336668). 
> 
> I'm such a sucker for both BokuAka and OsaAka my brain is just rotting arghhh!!!

Tobio stared at the door as he growled at it, his eyes watching for it to open and for his brother to come back in. He could already imagine Keiji coming in and wrapping him in his arms, telling him how sorry he was for making such a mistake in teaching someone as stupid as Bokuto when he could spend time with Tobio pampering him. His big brother had more common sense than the owl; to Tobio, Bokuto was an idiot who was loud and stupid like his nephew.

“Tobio, let’s go and play a game in the drawing room. I’m sure Shouyou would like something fun to do,” Takeda smiled as he knelt next to the boy. Tobio gave a little growl, a pout forming on his face as Takeda smiled. The little boy had come so far in adjusting to his new home. When he had first come, he hadn’t even wanted to look at him in the eye, let alone even look at him now and respond.

Tobio gave a little haruumph sound as Shouyou reached to grab his arm, squealing about what a drawing room was as Takeda led the two of them down the hallway. Even after being here for several months, Tobio still found it amazing at how huge everything was. In the eyes of a four-year-old, the world seemed too big and daunting.

Takeda turned his head every so often to make sure the two boys were following him. Shouyou had the tendency to rush into various rooms that had their doors open to peek inside, letting out squeals at how cool everything was. After much coaxing from Takeda, he finally brought them into the drawing room, a large room covered with wood with several bookshelves lining the walls and several toys scattered across the carpet. A window was opened, overlooking the garden where the remnants of an old volleyball net remained, the strings worn out from use and the weather beating mercilessly onto it.

Ukai still couldn’t bring himself to remove it after Keishin’s death. Takeda himself had tried to bring it down several times, the memories of the boy who used to play at it every day with his friends and himself stirring feelings in the pit of his stomach. After Keishin had died, Ikkei had drowned himself in his work and along the way, picked up Keiji and Tobio and taken him under his wing.

Ikkei had lost everyone in his family, from Keishin’s parents to Keishin himself. In his lifelong service to the Ukai family, Takeda had seen just how much sadness and heartbreak the old man had gone through.

_"Don't worry about it, Ittetsu. I will be back in no time," Keishin smiled as he pulled on his jacket. His suitcase was rolled out next to him, his sunglasses perched on his nose as Takeda beamed at him._

_"Please don't get yourself too burnt. You have a marriage interview to go to."_

_"If the lady wouldn't take a tanned me for an answer, guess I know how my response to it is going to be," Keishin grinned as he pulled Takeda into a hug, the butler wrapping his arms around the young master as he whispered into his ear, "Come back safe."_

_  
"Don't worry. It's just a flight to Hawaii. I will be doing the hula before you know it."_

There was a tug on his leg, snapping him out of his thoughts as the two toddlers gazed up at him. Shouyou had a look of worry on his face, his brown eyes wide as Tobio muttered, “Takeda sad?” Takeda smiled as he knelt down in front of the children just as Shouyou reached up to wipe at his face, bringing back with him tears Takeda hadn’t realised he had been shedding as he squealed, “Tears go by bye! Take-chan happy now!”

“Shouyou, thank you but I’m ok,” Takeda smiled as he wiped his tears away. He lifted his glasses to wipe them before setting them back on his nose, turning to the two boys when a thought came to his head.

“How about we head to the garden to play some volleyball?” Immediately the two boy’s eyes lightened up, Tobio shaking his head so hard that Takeda worried for a moment it might fall off as Shouyou squealed, “Wollyvall!”

“Wollyvall!” Tobio yelped as Takeda laughed, “Alright alright. Let’s head to the garden now.”

Takeda set up the small volleyball net that he had managed to fish out from the storage room, the net working surprisingly better than he had expected as he set it up. The two boys were trying to pull the volleyball out of the box, both failing miserably as they ended up rolling on the grass. Their little squeals and laughter reminded Takeda of the days when the Ukai household was filled with joy and laughter, boys always coming over to be taught volleyball by Ukai back in his days as the “Demon coach”.

“Let’s play!” Shouyou yelped as he finally managed to get the volleyball and handed it over to Takeda. Since it was a kid’s version, it was set much lower than usual, coming to only about four feet although it looked like a huge wall to the small boys. Tobio gave a grunt as Shouyou passed the ball to him, the other boy reaching up to catch it only for it to bonk into his face.

“Tobio-kun! Are you alright!?” Takeda yelped as he rushed over to his side, the smaller boy looking at the fallen ball. He hadn’t even seemed to register what had happened, his face still in a daze as a small trickle of blood dripped from his nose.

“Takeda, you shouldn’t give them the ball when they can’t even hold onto it,” a voice called as Ukai Ikkei came out from the house. The old man was clad in a tracksuit, his sharp gaze falling onto the two boys as they squeaked. Shouyou’s lip wobbled as he tried not to cry, Tobio’s face still in Takeda’s hands as he tried to wipe off the blood.

“I’m sorry sir. I just thought they might want to play a bit.” Ukai sighed as he gazed at the net, reminded of his days as a coach. While he did enjoy his job as headmaster now, he missed being on the court teaching boys and girls one of the most amazing sports in the world. There was nothing he loved more than seeing the smiles on the faces of children as they got a move right or managed to set a ball for the first time.

The older man knelt down in front of the children, gesturing the two of them to come forward. Slowly, the two toddlers made their way in front, Tobio holding onto the volleyball for dear life as Ukai tried his best to smile, “Pass me the ball, Tobio.” The boy grudgingly let go of it, handing it over to Ukai as the man spun the ball in his hand.

“Volleyball. Haikyuu, as we call it in Japanese. There are very simple rules to this game.

Two teams separated by a net bounce a ball back and forth between each other.” He got to his feet, reaching to toss the ball into the air as he straightened his arms, letting the ball bounce against them.

“The ball is not allowed to touch the floor.”

“It cannot be carried.”

Once it is in the air, a team has no more than three touches to connect and take the ball from receive to attack.” At that, he bumps the ball into the air, stretching out his arms to toss the ball into the air. The old man felt his body lift into the air his arm whipped back as he spiked the ball onto the ground, the sound of grass rustling as it connected to the ground.

Ah, the view on the top was still so beautiful.

When he turned, the two little boys were staring wide-eyed at him, their jaws dropped as they clambered at him. the old man had to contain his laughter as they tried to get him to teach them, their words overlapping with one another as they squealed.

“Teach us!” Shoyou yelped as Tobio squeaked, “Setta! Keiji-nii seta!”

  
“Alright alright. I will teach you two. But be prepared, they don’t call me the demon coach from Karasuno for nothing.”

_"Jisan! Come play with us!" a younger Keishin yelled as he jumped up and down in front of the net. A large smile was on his face as his grandfather tossed a volleyball to him, the boy rising into the air to spike it before letting out a whoop of triumph._

Perhaps, despite everything that had happened to him, volleyball was still something that connected him with people that would bring him some light into his life.

…

“Hey hey hey! I did it! I passed my exams!’ Bokuto yelled as he ran into the gym, some of the members already cringing at the sound of his voice. Kuroo smirked from his corner of the gym, currently in the process of helping Kenma do some stretches as the setter sighed, “You only just managed to get 40% Bokuto-san.”

“What? That’s still awesome! I was in the single digits until Akaashi tutored me!” Bokuto whined as Konoha whistled, “Oho, so that was what you were doing that day on our day off.”

“Oya oya? Got someone on your list now, Bokuto? Nice way to get his attention by being a bad student,” Kuroo purred as Bokuto gaped, “Come on man! Be happy for me a little!”

“Guys! Shut your traps and get to practice!” Daichi barked as the boys hollered in unison, Bokuto quickly running into the locker room to get changed. He happily hummed to himself as he got changed into his practice uniform, yanking up his knee pads before running out into the gym to take in the smell of salonpas and sweat with a grin.

Ah, how he loved standing on the court.

As practice began, he couldn’t help but find his mind wandering towards a certain boy who was now in the nursery babysitting his nephew and the other little kids. Bokuto did feel guilty for not being able to help as much with the kids but whenever he was there, he couldn’t help but feel blessed to be graced by the presence of a literal angel.

“Thinking of angel boy again?” Kuroo purred from the other side of the net as the ball bonked on top of Bokuto’s head. The ace was so out of it in dreamland that he didn’t notice that the game had even begun, Konoha yelling at him to get his head out of his ass as Bokuto tried not to groan.

This was going to be a long day.


	13. Summer fest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you guys see the new summer festival merch for Haikyuu??? I swear I was going crazy seeing how all of them looked so good in yukatas! I totally regret not getting the Akaashi standee but they're so expensive and I already have an Akaashi standee plus plushie so trying to limit it arghh!!!!
> 
> Anyhow, I actually tried to incorporate some of their yukata designs into this story (well for Akaashi at least, the rest got a little personalised fufu).

Keiji tugged at the sleeves of his yukata, Tobio looking around quizzically at the festival around him. Keiji couldn’t remember the last time he had gone for a summer festival, the last time probably being with his parents when he was much younger. Tobio tugged at his sleeve, pouting a little as the crowd began to thicken as Keiji gave him a little jostle.

“Is this a date?” Keiji thought warily as his heart slammed against his chest, waiting for the two boys who had invited them out that day to arrive.

**A few days ago…**

“Yo Akaashi! Me and Shouyou are going to go to the summer festival! Wanna come?” Bokuto had asked on the phone as Keiji tried not to drop the phone in both shock and happiness. Summer festivals were one of his favourite festivals of the year and to actually let his brother go somewhere other than school was a treat. He had immediately said yes, his eyes shining as he thought of how much fun Tobio would have at his first proper festival.

“Festival?” Ukai had asked as Keiji nodded, “Bokuto-san invited me and Tobio to go. Would it be alright?”

“Sure, just don’t go wasting money on the random stuff they sell over there.” Ukai dismissed them with a smile, Takeda putting on a sly smile as he handed the two of them carefully wrapped packages. When Keiji had opened them, he was stunned to see a beautiful dark blue yukata with the pattern of moons on it while Tobio had a tiny yukata with volleyball prints on it. The toddler was ecstatic over his gift, going crazy as he tried to put it on while Takeda chided him to stay still.

“Hey hey hey! You made it!” Bokuto’s loud voice echoed across the crowd as Keiji turned to see the boy approaching him with the rest of the volleyball club in tow. Of course, it wouldn’t be a damn date; the boy was too outgoing to not leave out his team on any occasion and not to mention, his partner in crime Kuroo was there. Keiji could already feel a headache sporting in his temples, Tobio letting out a little shriek as Shouyou waved from Bokuto’s arms.

“What you wanna do? Man, I’m starving!” Bokuto grinned as Konoha laughed, “Always looking for food eh?” Keiji wasn’t the only one sporting a yukata in their group; Kuroo wore a deep red yukata with a black sash while Kenma sported a mustard yellow yukata with a pattern of Gameboys all over it. Shouyou even had a tiny yukata on with crow prints on it, the little boy squirming to greet his friend, although his uncle knew better than to let the little terror on the lose in the festival. That one time in the zoo was enough to scare him to hold the boy at all times despite how much Shouyou would yank at his hair and pinch his cheeks.

Kuroo’s eyes raked over Keiji lazily as Kenma gave the cat a nudge in the ribs. Kuroo’s smile faltered ever so slightly as his best friend scowled, giving Keiji a look of apology as Keiji asked, “Shall we go?” Soon the group headed into the festival groups, Bokuto and Shouyou drooling at the sight of food stalls. It didn’t take long for everyone to have food in their hands; Shouyou and Tobio had cotton candy at hand, which Tobio stubbornly refused to eat in order to preserve its fluffiness. Kenma and Kuroo munched on candied apples while Keiji bit into roasted squid.

Bokuto, on the other hand, had yakisoba in one hand and was trying to eat it whilst juggling some shaved ice in the other. Konoha gently pried the shaved ice from his hand before the captain could drop it, Komi, Washiou and Onaga letting out sighs as they watched their childish captain let out hoots of laughter.

Despite how noisy the group was, Keiji had never felt more at home with a group of friends such as them. He had only ever gone to the festival with his parents or grandparents, most of the time being with his grandparents since his parents would be out of town. With them being old, Keiji didn’t have much of a chance to wander about without burdening their legs, the boy choosing to go home early or just watch people walking through the festival, enjoying the festivities.

“Hey, don’t forget we have to go to the shrine to pray!” Kuroo called as Bokuto removed his face from a large cloud of cotton candy. He let out an inaudible sentence, his team sighing as they herded him towards the large shrine that had several devotees lining up for prayer.

The group finally managed to get to the front, Bokuto grabbing onto the rope attached to the bell to ring it. The sound of rattling filled the air as the boys clapped their hands together three times before bowing, Konoha tossing in some money for good measure while the others bowed in prayer. Keiji himself wasn’t really a devout believer of religion, his head raising faster as Tobio squirmed in his arms, asking why they were doing something so boring.

“We need to ask the gods for guidance. Can’t go for a battle without their blessings,” Kuroo grinned as the little boy muttered, “Lame.” Kuroo tried to stop himself from letting out a hyena laugh as Kenma sent him a glare, not wanting passerby to think they’re a crazy bunch of teenagers when Keiji caught sight of some shrine maidens selling good luck charms. Once they were done, the group migrated over to the stall, Konoha and Onaga trying to get the shrine maidens to talk to them whilst Keiji’s eyes scanned across the charms available.

“Do you really believe in luck?” Kenma asked as Keiji picked out a charm with some owl patterns on it. Somehow, he always seemed to be able to find something related to that particular bird, his hand reaching into his pocket to get the money for it as the shrine maiden at the stall wrapped it up in a bag for him.

“Hey, isn’t that Suga-san from the daycare?” Konoha asked as Keiji turned abruptly. Konoha didn’t give him time to react as he yanked him behind the stall, one of the shrine maidens shooting them a look as the boys watched the nursery teacher walking towards the shrine. He was dressed in a light grey yukata with a yellow obi around his waist and right next to him was none other than the coach of the Fukurodani Volleyball Team, Sawamura Daichi. Both of them were in good spirits, Suga laughing at something Daichi had said as Keiji muttered, “Oya?”

“Oya oya?” Bokuto followed as Kuroo purred, “Oya oya oya.”

“What have we got here?” Kuroo grinned as he watched the duo walked up to the shrine to pray. The two men bowed their heads for a moment before stepping back, Daichi saying something to Suga as he led him back to the stalls. The boys quickly shrank back into the shadows the best they could, Shouyou and Tobio opening their mouths to ask what was going on before their respective guardians slapped their hands over their mouths.

“What do you say we have a little scouting session?” Kuroo grinned as Bokuto waggled his eyebrows, “We’re on dude!”

“You guys can do that. We’re gonna eat. Akaashi, please tell me you have some common sense to not play around with these morons,” Konoha groaned as Keiji raised an eyebrow, “I think it would be interesting.”

“Did that mad owl corrupt you or something? Since when were you this unreasonable?” Konoha whined as Washio grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and dragged him away, leaving the group to their own devices as Kuroo and Bokuto sported twin smiles, “Gentlemen, shall we?” Before they could move, Konoha opened his arms, his eyes eying the two toddlers that were about to be dragged into this sticky mess as he sighed, “I won’t let you two corrupt these two little angels, got it? you’re already nuts in the head, Bokuto. we’re not about to have a Bokuto 2.0 because of your meddling.”

“Hey! I’m cool!” Bokuto yelped as Konoha beamed to the two children, “Say, how about we go get some more cotton candy if you come with Big Bro Konoha?”

“Yay!” Shouyou chirped as Tobio eyed the other teenagers warily. He buried his face into his brother’s yukata, Keiji slowly prying him off to give him a little peck on the forehead.

“Don’t worry, Tobio. It’s only going to be for a while. I don’t want to ruin your first festival by spending time with them,” he jerked his head specifically at Kuroo, who pretended to hold his broken heart as Kenma rolled his eyes. The puddinghead was playing Pokemon Go at the moment, trying to catch a Pikachu as his best friend whined about how he wasn’t paying attention to him.

“Hey, kiddo. How about if you go with Konoha and we’ll let you go watch us during the preliminaries for Interhigh. How about that?” Bokuto grinned as Tobio’s eyes widened, “Promise?”

“Promise,” Bokuto grinned as he raised his pinky finger to shake. Since Tobio’s fingers were still tiny, the small boy wrapped the entirety of his hand onto the long finger, Bokuto grinning away as Konoha sighed, “You guys better hurry up or you’re going to lose them.”

…

Kenma and Keiji were already regretting their decision. The first thing the two boys had got for them were masks, and of all masks, they got a cat mask for Kenma and an Ultraman ask for Keiji. Kuroo and Bokuto were betting that Suga and Daichi were on a date, which was a no brainer considering the former’s obvious crush on the coach. Kenma and Keiji betted that the two owed them food for a month from the cafeteria if they kissed, which the two quickly said yes to.

“Daichi aint got the balls to kiss him,” Kuroo had said as Bokuto laughed, “I know right? The guy can’t even ask the guy out properly! I bet you Suga was the one who asked him out!” They continued to throw each other various theories as Keiji tried not to question his existence.

Despite how mad it was, he was not about to lose a chance to save money on food!

The boys trailed after the two men to the top of a nearby hill, Keiji nearly slipping on the wet grass as the two third years barrelled after them. they were anything but subtle at this point; Keiji was pretty sure the two teachers had heard them since the beginning of their little ‘excursion’.

“Can you hear anything?” Kuroo hissed as Bokuto leaned forward, “Yeah. Just come a bit closer.” The two boys pressed against the bushes, as Keiji heard Suga’s voice floating in the night air.

“Thanks for today,” Suga said as Daichi chuckled, “This was long overdue. I had been training the boys for so long and they deserve a break to enjoy the festivities. I didn’t really see a point coming here alone anyways.”

“Well you got me now.” Keiji rolled his eyes at how lame it sounded as Daichi cleared his throat, “Suga. I know you’re studying to be a teacher and you may very well have to leave Fukurodani Academy, but I want to let you know that I won’t ever forget you.”

“Cheesy,” Kenma muttered as Suga laughed, “Well, I was about to tell you something.”

“Here it comes,” Kuroo smirked as Suga said, “I think you’re freaking hot and I want to date you.” The boys craned to see what happened next, Bokuto stifling a laugh as he saw Daichi closing the gap between them. Suga let out a smile as they kissed, Daichi gripping onto his yukata just as the first of the fireworks began to shoot into the sky. Daichi giggled as they were painted a mirage of purple and gold, Suga holding onto him as Kuroo and Bokuto groaned, “Shit.”

“Pay up fellas,” Kenma grinned, holding up his hand just as he heard the bushes rustling and a very familiar and scary face beamed at them. The three volleyball players squawked as Daichi smiled down at them like a demon from hell, his smile deadly as he said, “So, what are you three doing here spying on us?”

“Well, as you can see, we were just..”

“We thought it would be fine to…”

“No buts! Spying on us? What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Can’t we even have some private time these days?! You two are running extra 5km until nationals, you got it?” Daichi roared as the three of them trembled. As the man shouted his ear off at the three athletes, Suga gave Keiji a wink as he tried to stop the coach from grilling his students. As the fireworks went up into the sky, Keiji couldn’t help but feel his hand curl around the charm in his pocket, wishing he had the guts to give it to Bokuto.

Maybe next time, he might be able to confess to Bokuto and kiss under the fireworks.

“This isn’t a shounen manga,” he groaned as Daichi’s shouting flew past his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to admit them sneaking after Suga and Daichi was freaking random but hey. They're idiotic high schoolers who need a bit of thrill right?


	14. Tobio's first summer festival adventure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I have to move in one freaking month arghh!!! So not looking forward to the packing; normally people hate the travelling bit but I think I should be fine with my books, fanfics and movies fufu. Hoping to watch some Gibhli films on the way there.
> 
> Enjoy the weekend!!

Tobio watched as the group retreated from sight, Kuroo and Bokuto laughing at a joke they said to each other while Keiji and Kenma hung around the back. Tobio couldn't help but feel jealous that his brother got to hang around with such cool and big boys, his round eyes already watering from having to be separated from him as Konoha gave him a little jostle, “Come on, let’s go have some fun!”

“Are you sure you can even take care of them? Don’t blame me if they get lost or something,” Onaga groaned as Shouyou squirmed in his arms, trying to tug at his yukata as Konoha grinned, “We take care of Bokuto all the time. How bad can this be?” The group collectively gave a groan before resigning to their fates, walking back to the direction of the stalls with the two toddlers in tow.

Surprisingly, they were pretty well behaved. Tobio would just munch on whatever food was given to him, Shouyou squeaking what food he wanted as Washiou swore he would make Bokuto pay him for whatever his nephew had ordered before reluctantly parting with his precious cash. Despite having the two in tow, that didn’t stop the group from going wild and trying out various games. Onaga had to pass Shouyou over to Komi for a while to play some shooting games, able to nail each and every target dead centre as the game stall owner gawked at them.

After that, they headed over to the small stall where they could catch some goldfish. Two toddlers were already squatted in front of the big tubs, their eyes trained on the fish as they held tiny nets in their hands. Two large men stood behind them, one of them glaring daggers at the fish as his sons tried to swipe them. Even the stall owner was feeling the intimidating aura coming from him, his companion patting his arm telling him to calm down when the boys recognised him.

“Hey, Kita-sensei!” Konoha called as the group walked over. The two boys perked up their heads before recognising the other kids, Atsumu and Osamu squealing in unison when they recognised the ball of sunshine in Onaga’s arms.

“Shou-chan!” they yelled as they abandoned their nets. Shouyou squirmed so much that Onaga nearly dropped him, the boy rushing over to his friends to give them hugs when Komi gave a yelp, “Wait a sec, isn’t that… isn’t that?”

Kita put a finger to his lips, a playful smile on his face as Ushijima nodded. The athlete sported a dark purple yukata while his husband had a grey yukata with the pattern of rice paddies on it. The two of them had masks on the sides of their heads as well; Ushijima had an Ultraman mask while Kita had a fox mask. The twins sported matching yukatas with tiny fox masks on the sides of their heads, the two now busy chattering away with Shouyou as Tobio gave a little pout.

The small boy never did know how to act in social situations. Ever since he met the twins, he never knew if they liked him or not, always trying to steal Shouyou from him when they had the chance. The babies were no help either, Tooru and Hajime often wailing whenever they saw the older boy so Tobio would often end up slinking over to Suga or sit in the corner watching the rest play with a glare in his eyes.

A shadow fell over him as he looked up to see Ushijima smiling at him.

“You want to catch some goldfish? Atsumu and Osamu haven’t taken their turns yet so you can still play,” he said as Tobio nodded his head vigorously to show afterimages. The man gave a chuckle, asking permission from Konoha to hand the boy to him, which Konoha did whilst trying not to have his jaw drop at looking at his idol. Ushijima slowly brought the boy to the ground, his wooden sandals clacking as Tobio made his way to the tubs, his eyes shining as he saw the fish swimming in the water. Their scales sparkled in the soft glow of the lantern, the stall owner handing him a tiny net that he grasped in his fist.

Tobio glared at the fish for a good few minutes before scooping into the tub. Ushijima was worried for a second that the boy might fall in from the amount of force he put into the swing, although his concerns were rebuked once Tobio sported a pretty orange goldfish in his net.

“I caught one!” he yelled as he held it up with happiness. The stall owner coaxed the boy to give the fish to him before he dropped it, Tobio’s happiness overflowing as the twins and Shouyou came over.

“What Tobi get?” Shouyou squeaked as the stall owner handed the bag with the goldfish inside. The children gawked at the creature swimming around inside, their mouths opened into little o’s as they circled around it. Konoha snapped a few pictures for good measure to show to Keiji afterwards, the twins starting to poke at the bag to get the fish to look at them until Kita made them stop with a simple yet deadly smile on his face.

The group migrated to the main shrine where a dance was being held. The adults hoisted the kids onto their shoulders to give them a better view of the spectacle, Konoha hoisting Tobio on his shoulders as he grunted on how heavy he was. Tobio squeaked as he was hoisted into the air, flapping his arms as he tried not to drop his goldfish before turning his focus to the traditional dance. Several dancers doned fox masks, the sound of bells chiming as they moved. Tobio had never seen such a beautiful dance in his entire life, his eyes shining as he watched a man with brown hair moving on the stage.

“Ah, Kita-sensei. How are you?” a voice called as the group turned to see Mrs Iwaizumi and Mrs Oikawa standing in the crowd. The babies were awake in their arms, squirming to see what was going on ahead as Hajime gave Tooru a little growl. Tooru gave a squeal as both women tried to lift them higher to see the dance, the two squirming so much that they nearly dropped them as Mrs Oikawa laughed, “Our husbands are performing in front. Thought it would be good to show the kids how good their dads are.”

“You better worry about how the ladies will flock your man once he takes off his mask,” Mrs Iwaizumi laughed as Mrs Oikawa groaned, “I don’t even know what led me to marry Takeru in all honesty. He flirts so much; I swear if Tooru ends up like him, he’s going to be out in the streets.” The two women laughed as the dance finally finished, the dancers bowing before making their way off the stage. The two quickly made their way forward, the brown-haired man from before removing his mask to reveal a very handsome face. His brown eyes crinkled when he saw his wife, his son squirming to get into his arms as he laughed, “Come here, Tooru.” The baby gurgled as he was lifted into the air, his father giving him some upsies while Hajime bit into the arm of his father as he tried to lift him up. Mr Iwaizumi was much more mellow than his wife and he wailed at how his son didn’t even want to be held by him.

“Iwa-chan!” a voice yelped as the families stopped their little wrestling match with their kids. Mr Oikawa gaped as his son opened his mouth to speak, the little boy reaching out for his best friend before crying out, “Iwa-chan.”

“Toto!” Hajime growled back as Mr Iwaizumi nearly dropped him, “Wait a sec, did they just call each other?” Hajime squirmed in his father’s arms to get to his friend, the two men quickly handing the kids over to their wives who were much better at manhandling them as the two babies yelped each other’s names.

“I don’t know to be sad that they didn’t call papa or mama first or if it's super adorable if they called each other first,” Mrs Oikawa laughed as Mrs Iwaizumi grinned, “Guess these two are literally matched made in heaven.”

“We’re already like literal family now,” Mr Oikawa laughed as Mr Iwaizumi gave him a pat on the back. The group said their goodbyes to the teenagers and Ushijima and Kita before making their way into the crowd to spend some family time together, Mr Oikawa complaining at how hungry he was as his son babbled Iwa-chan the entire way.

“Wait! We nearly forgot about the fireworks!” Konoha gasped as he looked at the time. The group quickly made their way to the nearly hill where several people were already gathered. Some of them were seated on mats while others stood, hand in hand with lovers and children as they waited for the fireworks to show. Konoha jostled Tobio in his arms, the boy squirming to find his brother as Konoha grinned, “Come on, Tobio. This is gonna be fun!” At his words, fireworks began to sail into the sky, showering them in a display of colours as the crow ohh and ahhed at it.

Kita and Ushijima were holding hands, contented smiles on their faces as they held each of their sons with their free hands. Washiou had hoisted Shouyou onto his shoulders, the boy squealing as he pointed out what kind of shapes are being made in the sky. The rest of the team were just watching it with contented smiles on their faces, Tobio’s eyes wide as he took it in.

So pretty.

Towards the end of the fireworks display, they were met with the four coming back from their little excursion. Daichi was pulling Kuroo and Bokuto by the ears, Kenma looking anywhere but them right now as Keiji followed behind. Tobio was quick to squirm out of his brother’s arms and running towards him, calling out his name as his brother picked him up.

“Were you a good boy?”

“Fireworks pretty!” Tobio yelped as he pointed at the sky. The last of the fireworks had exploded into a shower of gold and silver, lighting up Keiji’s features as he pressed a kiss onto his brother’s forehead.

“Yes, they really are pretty, Tobio.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suck with names and can get pretty lazy to check. For some reason, Takeru was the first name to come in mind so tada (and it isn't Oikawa's nephew from canon, let's just pretend that didn't exist).


	15. Interhigh here we come!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I tried to do some research on when the Interhigh is, plus when nationals for the interhigh would be since we only get to see the Spring interhigh happening. Tried to pull out a timeline and made sure it went well with the story so hope it makes sense now! So the first interhigh happened around June/July and then apparently nationals for that particular interhigh is around August/September time so hoping to keep to that.
> 
> I got myself confused just by writing this explanation haha!

The sound of the kids squirming in their baby seats ricocheted across the van as Suga groaned at the traffic situation in front of them. Tokyo’s traffic wasn’t doing them any favours as the group waited anxiously to get to the stadium, Suga’s fingers drumming against the steering wheel before nearly planting his face onto the horn.

“Dammit, I hope we make it in time!” Keiji didn’t want to say anything to increase the man’s stress, choosing to look at the kids seated at the back. Most of them sported a variation of volleyball jerseys, with Shouyou and Tobio sporting jerseys with Bokuto and Kuroo’s numbers on them. The cat had whipped out the shirts one day when visiting the nursery, claiming them to be a little gift to his favourite boys while the twins wrestled him to the ground. They sported their father’s team jerseys in miniature size; both had the name Ushijima on the back of their shirts.

Even the babies had some onesies on them modelled after volleyball teams; their mothers had said they were too cute to not buy for them so they were now sporting white onesies with aqua accents along the sides. Tooru had the number 1 on his back while Hajime had the number 4 on him. And ever since the two of them had managed to learn how to call each other’s names, they’ve been calling each other at any given notice.

“Toto!” Hajime whined as he chucked his toy Godzilla at Suga’s headrest. Tooru gurgled as he attempted to throw his alien plushie at Keiji’s head, Suga groaning at them to stop adding to the stress of the situation when Keiji received a message from Bokuto. As usual, the owlish boy had included more emojis and owl memes than words, making Keiji’s smile turn up as Suga threw him a grin.

“Don’t start Suga-san.”

“Come on. When are you going to tell him that you like him? He’s not going to be here forever you know. With how good he is with volleyball, I wouldn’t be surprised if he went pro overseas,” Suga mused as Keiji sighed. He had thought about the possibilities, not that he didn’t mind having a long-distance relationship. He just didn’t know if it would be fair for him to have a boyfriend when he needed to focus on taking care of his own younger brother who didn’t have any parents to teach him the ropes.

“Niichan?” Tobio called from the back, Suga swivelling his head to smile at the boy as he asked, “Yes, Tobio?”

“Bokuto-san meanie, but he good. Niichan like him?” Tobio asked as Shouyou yelped, “Uncle Kou is the best! He’s cool!”

“Owlman!” Atsumu and Osamu shouted together as the babies gurgled, “Owu!” Suga chuckled as the kids tried to find ways to make Keiji like Bokuto, not knowing just how much the raven had already fallen for the guy as he laughed, “Don’t worry. I know he’s a good guy.”

“So you will kiss?” Tobio asked as Suga barked out a laugh, clutching his sides as he hammered on the horn by mistake. Several drivers swivelled their heads to glare at the man, Suga not looking apologetic the slightest as he saw Keiji turned fifty shades of red darker as he grinned, “Now now, where did you learn that word, Tobio-kun?”

“Kuroo-san! He said we wuv someone, we ki… ku… su… kisu… them!” Tobio babbled as Keiji buried his face into his hands. He was so going to kill the cat when he saw him, whether Kenma agreed or not was another thing entirely.

He didn’t expect the pudding head to object though after how annoying his best friend had been to him and everyone else on the team. While he was a good player and was smart, his snarky attitude makes Keiji wonder how did Bokuto even found a friend in the man.

“Ah, we’re finally freaking moving!” Suga sighed as the cars lurched forward, his hand moving to pull the handbrake down and letting them move forward. The mood in the van had lightened after the kids' little outburst, Suga even putting on some music from the Burnout Syndromes band as the song Hikari Are filled the car.

The group finally pulled into the stadium, the two men unbuckling the kids and hoisting the babies onto their backs. The toddlers had been attached to backpacks that had leashes on them, allowing them to roam around a metre from the boys whilst allowing them to keep an eye on them. Keiji was just praying the leashes didn’t break from how hard the toddler’s tugged at them; Atsumu and Osamu were already trying to run for the nearest onigiri store while Shouyou and Tobio were headed towards the merchandise section.

“Come on kids. Please stay together. We need to find Bokuto and the others, alright?” Suga said as they walked forward into the stadium. Since it was the finals, not too many school teams were about except for those that wanted to see some of the games. The sounds of cheering and bands playing echoed inside the gym as they walked up the stairs leading to the bleachers, the smell of salonpas hitting Keji’s nose long before he reached the top as the light blinded him momentarily.

The gym was massive; a large orange court spread out in the middle with a net dividing the court into two halves. On either end, a school band was seated, cheering for their teams. Cheerleaders were shouting some player names as they waved their pom poms in the air, the sound of the drums and trumpets playing school anthems not quite loud enough to drown out the chanting and cheers from the other schools.

The group squeezed into one of the front row seats, the kids already cheering and screaming to be held up in the air. Keiji hoisted Tobio on his shoulders, the boy letting out a yell as he pointed down to the court where the Fukurodani team was, the boys getting ready for their game as they listened in on the coach.

Daichi was saying something to the team, the group nodding before they put their hands forward. Bokuto was wearing a large smirk as Kuroo put a hand in the middle of the circle, his other arm around Kenma as the other players did the same. Konoha looked slightly nervous yet excited for what was coming, Komi, Sarukui and Washio with smiles on their faces as Kuroo said, “We are like the blood in our veins. We must flow without stopping. Keep the oxygen moving and your mind working. Fukurodani, fight!”

“Fight!” everyone shouted, although Kenma could be heard muttering over the cheers as he groaned to his friend, “Do we really need to do this? It sounds so lame.”

  
“What?! It’s true! We need to make sure you keep functioning by doing our part!” he ruffled the setter’s hair at that, Kenma blushing slightly at the gesture as the opposing team walked onto the court; the champions for the past five years in both Tokyo and on the national stage; Itachiyama Academy. Even though Fukurodani had already bagged a ticket to nationals, that didn’t mean that they wanted to lose to them right now.

“Ah, here come the weasels,” Kuroo grinned, cracking his knuckles as Bokuto yelled, “Hey hey hey! Let’s go kick some asses!”

“Don’t jinx it, Bokuto,” Konoha groaned as they walked onto the court, Komi wheeling in the ball cart behind them as they went in to do some practice. They started out with spikes, Kenma tossing the ball with ease into the air. even though the puddinghead would normally have a bored or tired expression on his face, his golden eyes were now alight with concentration; each and every one of his tosses were set perfectly into the air for the spiker to spike. Komi bumped back each ball with ease, all except for a single spiker than rose above the rest.

“Hey hey hey!” Bokuto yelled as he spiked down the ball with enough force to bruise. Komi stepped aside, knowing full well what it might do to his arms although that didn’t stop him from screaming at his captain to chill the heck out as the owl boy turned to the crowd. His eyes fell on the small group, Keiji’s face heating up as Bokuto pointed finger guns at him and yelled, “Hey hey hey, Akaashi! Did you see that? Did you? Did you?”

“Uncle Kou!” Shouyou yelled as his uncle flashed him a grin, giving him a thumbs-up as Keiji tried to make sure he didn’t climb over the railing by mistake. The twins were shouting down at them, holding small banners with the Fukurodani school slogan on it while Suga made sure the babies weren’t too overwhelmed by the sound. Surprisingly, the babies had joined in the madness, Hajime swinging his Godzilla plushie in the air while Tooru waved his alien plushie in the air as he tried to say “Fukurodani”, although it came out more as “fua!”

“Hey hey hey, I will win for you guys!” Bokuto grinned as Kuroo clapped him on his back to steer the captain forward for the coin toss. Bokuto strode forward, his shoulders squared back with confidence as he met the captain of Itachiyama at the net. The referee blew the whistle as the two of them shook, both boys giving intimidating auras to one another as Bokuto grinned, “Hey hey hey, we’re going to kick your asses.”

“Try me,” the captain smirked before letting go, Bokuto grinning as he let go. They nodded to the referee to toss the coin into the air, the silver spinning before landing onto his palm. Bokuto gave a yell as it was announced they were the first server, the wing spiker giving a grin as the Itachiyama captain merely went back to his fellow players.

“Alright people! Are we ready to rock?” Bokuto yelled as Konoha laughed, “Whatever you say ace.”

“Come on, ace. Let’s do this,” Kuroo grinned as he steered him onto the court, the boys lining up on either side of the net before shouting in unison, “Let’s have a good game!” Keiji could feel the adrenaline of being in a game coursing through his veins, a wide smile forming on his face as he watched a sea of black and white meet one of yellow, green and white in the middle, the players shaking hands.

Let the games begin.

…

“I didn’t expect you to take note of such things,” Suga laughed as they trudged down to the court to meet up with the team. The smell of defeat hung in the air as Fukurodani packed their things, the players slinking off the court in defeat despite knowing they would go to nationals anyways. Bokuto’s hair was wilted as Kuroo held him up, the middle blocker looking grim himself as he supported his friend.

“Akaashi!” Bokuto wailed as he barrelled into him, not caring that Tobio was in his arms. Keiji accidentally let the twins leashes go at that instance, the two of them barrelling forward to meet their father, who picked them up and gave them some very much needed cuddles before turning to his students.

  
“Come on. Let’s go back to the academy for a meeting. After that, we’re going to have yakiniku.” None of the boys looked like they wanted to eat though, most of them with forlorn looks on their faces until someone yelled, “Don’t look down!” The group turned to see Headmaster Ukai standing before them, his black jacket hanging off his shoulders as he grinned at them.

“Volleyball is a sport where you look up,” he grinned as he walked forward, clapping each of the boys in turn on the shoulder.

“This isn’t the last battle. You may have lost this battle, but you haven’t lost the war. There is still nationals so when you get to that stage, you better kick Itachiyama’s ass, got it?” he grinned as a few chuckles rose from the group. Daichi gave the headmaster a nod before turning to look at his team, the man trying to wipe away the tears from his eyes as he yelled, “Alright! Group huddle!’ Slowly the team came forward, forming a circle. Bokuto reluctantly let go of Akaashi, returning to join his team as their coach beamed, “I’m proud of you morons, got it? Until nationals comes, we’re going to train until we drop. Fukurodani, fight!”

“Fight!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is why I do not drive, period. 
> 
> You know those kinds of backpacks that have leashes attached to them so the kids won't be able to go running in all directions? Whoever made those is a genius haha, especially if someone has to handle around four boisterous toddlers.


	16. Babies become adults and vice versa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is super random but when I read the manga and saw this particular chapter, it just made my heart feel so warm imagining how these babies would be like as teenagers and so on (we already know about these dorks as volleyball crazed teenagers fufu so not much of a surprise here but we get to see cute baby versions of Bokuto and Keiji!)
> 
> Also I wrote a fanfic in contribution to UshiSaku Week 2020 called Toilet Bound Sakusa-san (super original title right haha!) and you can check it out here :[Toilet bound Sakusa-san](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25862455)

Sugawara Koushi was a simple man really; he just wanted to get enough money to support himself whilst doing nightschool for teacher college. Therefore, he took the only option available since he thought that hey, he had always taken care of ‘kids’ his entire life ever since he was in high school so how hard could taking care of real kids be?

Turns out; a whole new level of pain.

Compared to teenage volleyball players who were running on excess hormones and energy levels, taking care of babies that involved changing diapers nearly sent Suga in a frenzy. Even the occasional experience of helping out his sister taking care of his niece wasn’t as insane as when taking care of five kids at one time.

When he had first started at the Academy, the first thing he had to do was to take care of the twins. Luckily at that time, Shouyou hadn’t enrolled yet and the babies hadn’t been born but that alone had been crazy since Suga had a hell of a time trying to differentiate which twin was which. The two of them had very strong personalities even at such a young age and would do anything to make his life a living hell; more than once Suga had found Atsumu crawling away to hide in the toilet while Osamu tried to paint poop on his pants. Daichi had nearly fainted at the smell of it as Suga tried to sneak into the gym to have a look at practice, totally giving away his position and making him look like a moron.

Then came the ball of sunshine, Hinata Shouyou. While he was energetic and made a hell lot of noise, at least he would cooperate with Suga to a certain degree. Once the boy began to attend the daycare, somehow or rather, he managed to lure the twins in with his charm and in a way, tame their wild behaviour and make them more behaved. If Keiji thought the twins were bad now, Suga thought that they were literal angels from heaven.

A year later came the babies and Suga was torn between calling them adorable or little menaces. When he had first taken them under his wing, Hajime wouldn’t stop growling and biting him whenever he laid hands on Tooru or Tooru would be wailing nonstop when he was separated from Hajime. That led to him learning how to carry the two babies on both the front and back of his body to make sure they were together at all times; while that initially led to a lot of backaches, at least he didn’t have to go home with ringing ears from the aftermath of crying sessions.

Compared to all of them, Tobio was absolutely easy to take care of other than the occasional snarky remark. All he did was scowl, to be honest.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but love these kids as his own.

“Morning, Kita-sensei,” Suga greeted as the man dropped off his kids. The twins greeted Suga before scurrying to join Shouyou at the corner of the room to play tag, the little boy brandishing a new volleyball his father had gifted him. The babies were now sleeping on a mat, their diapers freshly changed.

“Thank you for your hard work, Suga-sensei.”

“Don’t call me that yet. I still have a ways to go before I qualify for that title.” Kta merely gave him a knowing smile as he excused himself to go to work, shutting the door with a rattle as the twins and Shouyou began yelling over the ball.

“Me wanna pway!” Osamu yelled as Atsumu shouted, “Baka! Ball mine!”

‘Guys please! Don’t fight!” Suga groaned as he tried to calm them down. The twins were now jabbing each other in the face as they tried to grab onto the ball, Shouyou squealing for them to stop as the ball went flying sky high. The ball bounced onto the ground, right below Suga’s foot as the man stepped on it. The next thing he knew, he was slipping off the ground and his head slammed the ground with a resounding smack before everything went black.

“Suga-san? Suga-san!” a voice called as someone tapped his face. Suga slowly cracked open his eyes to see a pair of familiar brown eyes that didn’t look quite right. The man slowly blinked as he recognised a shock of orange hair waving in front of his eyes, a worried look on the boy’s face as Suga groaned, sure that his head was playing tricks on him as he groaned, “Hinata? Is that you?”

“Thank goodness! Looks like your brain is ok,” the boy beamed as Suga slowly blinked again. _No freaking way could Hinata be a teenager_ , he thought as he rolled up to face the boy. Hinata was seated with his legs tucked underneath him, a small pout on his face as he held onto a small boy in his arms. The boy looked the tiniest bit sorry for what he had just done, a small volleyball in his hands as his white hair wilted on his head.

“Come on, Koutarou. Say sorry to Suga-san. You could have hurt him!” Hinata scolded as Suga rubbed his eyes hard. If his mind was working right, he was seeing a teenager Hinata and a kid Bokuto in his lap. The kid looked very much like Bokuto, completed with the hair and all, but how on earth could this be happening?

“Hinata. Let me get this straight. You’re a teenager. And Bokuto is a kid?” Suga blurted as Bokuto squeaked, “Suga kray kray!”

“Koutarou!” Shouyou whined as he clamped a hand over the boy’s mouth just as the door rattled open and twin voices spoke out in unison, “Shouyou! Sup!” Suga’s eyes widened even further as the now teenaged Kita twins stepped into the room, his mouth dropping open in shock as he looked at how much they had grown.

Both of them had to be around sixteen to seventeen; their bodies well built and the twins towering over six feet at least. The fact that they were sporting different hair colours and Suga still managed to pick up who was who on the get go was amazing! Atsumu now sported a nasty blonde hair colour while Osamu had grey hair. Their faces hadn’t changed much, although Atsumu looked a tad bit more snarky while Osamu looked as bored as ever. The older twin was munching on an onigiri as they walked in, Atsumu grinning as he ran over to pull Shouyou into a hug before giving Bokuto a poke on the cheek.

“Hey Bokkun! How are you?” he grinned as Bokuto yelped, “Tsum tsum!”

“Aww, he’s so cute!” Atsumu cooed as he poked the boy’s face before Shouyou groaned, “Try taking care of him. This guy is a poop factory!”

“Poop!” Bokuto echoed as the door rattled open once more. Suga almost didn’t want to turn his head but he did anyway, his jaw almost dropping for the second time in a row as he saw Hajime and Tooru lurking at the door, Tooru sporting a flirty smile as he beamed, “Chibi-chan! Yahoo! Hey, freak twins!”

“Oikawa, piss off!” Osamu growled as he stood in front of Shouyou. The boy looked confused as Tooru stepped forward, a feral grin on his face as he sneered into Osamu’s face, “It’s Oikawa-senpai to you, Kita-kun.”

“Oh shove off, Shittykawa. Don’t go annoying your fellow teammates early in the morning,” Hajime growled as he slammed a fist into Tooru’s head, making the boy yell in pain as he rounded onto him, “Iwa-chan, what the hell?!”

“That’s for you being an idiot, Crappykawa!”

“Why do you keep insulting me?”  
  


“Cuz you’re trash!” he yelled just as a whine came from Hajime’s arms. A boy stirred in his arms, although it wasn’t hard to take a guess on who it was considering he had a natural bedhead. Now that Suga looked closer, Tooru also had a boy in his arms, his hair jet black but golden eyes still familiar as Kenma and Kuroo turned to look at him.

“Sorry about this. Kuroo and Kozume-sensei asked us to drop them off. I’m surprised Kenma hasn’t tried to chew Tooru yet,” Hajime said as he set Kuroo down. The boy looked around quizzically before turning to Suga, a catlike smirk curling on his face as he turned to his best friend. Kenma looked reluctant to let go of Tooru, the boy chiding him to let him go on his merry way as Suga asked, “Wait, what do you mean team?” The boys blinked at him before Shouyou shrugged, “He stepped on Koutarou’s ball and fell on his head pretty hard. He keeps thinking we’re kids.”

“Eh?!” Tooru yelped as Hajime groaned, “You’re technically a kid in a teenager’s body.”

"Mean!” Tooru whined just as Atsumu let out a yell, “Shit! We’re going to be late! Coach is gonna kill us!” Atsumu quickly stood up as Shouyou pressed a kiss onto Bokuto’s cheek, “I’m going to be back later, ok?”

“Bye bye!” Bokuto waved as the boys got ready to leave. Now that Suga noticed, they were all sporting the white and black jacket of the Fukurodani Volleyball team. Most of them even had bags with the team name on it and heck, a line of volleyball shoes was at the entrance as they got ready to leave.

"Speaking of which, where is Tobio-chan? That idiot is always late,” Osamu whistled as Suga felt his heart hammer. If all of them turned out to be this good looking with shitty ass attitudes as teenagers, perhaps Tobio would have…

Wait, didn’t that mean that Keiji was…

The door slammed open before he could get the words out, a tall boy panting at the entrance as he leaned against the doorframe. A small body was huddled against his chest, Tobio trying to catch his breath as Atsumu groaned, “You’re late again, Tobio-kun.”

“Shut up, Atsumu,” he groaned as Shouyou grinned, “Hey Tobio! You made it!” The group of boys visibly glared at Tobio who had managed to warrant a smile from Shouyou, the raven quickly moving to detach the small body huddled against him with a murmur, “Keiji. You have to go to daycare now. Nii-chan has to go for volleyball practice.” There was a small nod of agreement from the boy, Suga nearly cooing as Akaashi Keiji turned to him, his face round with baby fat. He gunmetal eyes were wide, his button nose chubby and his face framed with an owl scarf. His brother quickly set him down on the ground before he was welcomed by Bokuto who shouted, “Keiji!” before dragging him off to play.

“Now that we got our setter back, let’s go for some training!” Tooru yelled as the group walked out, Shouyou and Tobio yelling at each other about making a bet on who could reach the gym first before running off before the others. Atsumu and Osamu would be heard shouting after them as they ran, Tooru and Hajime idling along at the back. Suga had all but thought everything couldn’t get any weirder as he turned to see the group of four kids seated together, Kuroo and Kenma trying to play on a Gameboy while Keiji and Bokuto were playing a game with their volleyball.

_“Ah, this is still so cute,”_ Suga thought as he felt his head pound, his hand reaching to touch his temple as he felt his body keel over. His head connected to the ground as he heard a frantic voice calling his name, followed by a wet cloth touching his head as he opened his eyes to met gunmetal ones.

“Suga-san!” Keiji called out as he tapped the man’s face, Suga blinking as the daycare came back into focus. He turned to see the kids seated around him, worried looks on their faces as Bokuto hollered about trying to call an ambulance whilst Keji tried to calm him down.

“He could have had a concussion!”

  
“We will bring him to the infirmary Bokuto-san. Please don’t try to call 911 just yet.”

“Akaashi!” Bokuto whined as a small hand tapped on his face, making him turn to see Shouyou, Atsumu and Osamu holding onto the volleyball from earlier. The three of them had tears in their eyes as they reached to give Suga a hug, the three of them barely able to hold onto his neck as they wailed, “Suga, we sowwy!” The three began to cry as Tobio muttered, “Baka. Aho. Boke.” Keiji shushed his brother, quickly apologising to Suga as the man laughed to himself.

Ah, sometimes working as a daycare teacher isn’t so bad after all if he could be surrounded by such interesting kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this cuteness overload was ok!


	17. The joy of exams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seriously can't believe I nearly had a heatstroke wth... after living in a hot country for so many years, this shit still happens arghh!! Just glad I'm feeling a bit better now, although going to use this as an excuse to hunker indoors and binge stuff.

“Arghh, why do they have to be so cruel to us? The damn nationals are the week after our midterms!” Konoha groaned as he scratched his head. the boy had already been pulling out his hair for the past 10 minutes, several strands of it falling onto the ground as Keiji patted his friend on the back.

It wasn’t as though he was free from the stress of it all either. He had been so busy with the kids and especially with teaching Tobio how to set ever since the boy learned about setting and found out his brother was a setter he hadn’t had any time to study. He only ever had time to do his homework and being in the college preparatory class was a new level of insane entirely. He couldn’t imagine the stress Konoha must be feeling of both having to study for the exams and having nationals. Luckily for them, Daichi had given them the week off to study and prepare. This time, Bokuto stuck to studying with Kuroo, saying he didn’t want to burden Keiji with his moronic-ness as he called it.

“I’m home,” Keiji announced as he stepped into the genkan, Takeda giving them a warm smile as he helped take his bag. Keiji still couldn’t get used to the fact that he had literally house service, didn’t have to cook or clean or even pay any bills. He had been so used to juggling everything on his own from taking care of Tobio to finances that he wondered how he even managed to shoulder it all on his own for so long.

“Welcome home, Keiji. Tobio,” Takeda beamed as Tobio growled, “Takeda, hi.”

“Come on, be nicer,” Keiji muttered as Takeda said, “The Headmaster is waiting for you in his study. I will bring your things to your room first.” Keiji wondered what the man wanted with them as they made their way to the study, Keiji bringing a hand to knock on the door as Ukai called out from inside, “Enter.”

“Pardon the intrusion,” Keiji mumbled as he stepped inside, Tobio grunting in reply as Ukai laced his fingers together. As Keiji shut the door behind him, the old man leaned forward on his elbows, his eyes scanning the boys before asking, “How is studying for the exams going?”

“Uh…” Keiji muttered as Ukai sighed, “I thought so. Taking care of the little ones can be a heavy task. I should have let you off at least a week ago.”

“Sir, I should be able to study…” Keiji tried to interject when he thought of the number of times he had fallen asleep from exhaustion the moment he sat on the bed to read to Tobio or even just getting home. The kids had been so much more energetic lately to say the least, draining every ounce of energy from his body. Even with Bokuto coming in to help at times (gods knew where he found so much energy to play with the kids and volleyball), it still wasn’t enough.

“Anyway, I called you in to inform you that Takeda will be helping in the daycare for the next few weeks until your exams are over. I want to make sure you do well in your studies. You may be here earning your keep, but I don’t want you to sacrifice your future because of feeling too tired,” the old man said as Keiji bowed, “Thank you so much, sir.”

“On a side note, I will also be taking off Tobio from you so he can sleep with me.” Keiji unconsciously gripped his brother tighter as Tobio’s face fell, his eyes widening as Ukai grunted, “Come on kid. I won’t do anything to you or whatever. Just to make sure your brother can actually study.”

“Me want niichan!” Tobio murmured as the door opened to reveal Takeda. The man gave a nod as he entered, his smile on the small boy as he knelt down in front of him before taking his hands in his.

“Tobio-kun. Your brother needs to study hard for his future. If Tobio-kun is a good boy, your brother will be happy too. So until then, stay with the headmaster, ok?” Tobio gave a pout before silently nodding, the butler giving him a smile as he asked for permission to carry the toddler into his arms.

“Now, how about we head down for dinner? I have made some very nice blueberry yoghurt just for you, Tobio.”

“Yogwat!” Tobio squealed, his mood improving surprisingly fast as he was carried out of the room, Ukai sighing at how Takeda was spoiling the boy too much as Keiji gave a bow before excusing himself.

After saying goodbye to Tobio for the night, he found himself in their bedroom, his books spread out in front of him as he wrote down some of his biology notes. The sparseness of the room and the quiet was making him feel uneasy since he was so used to Tobio babbling in the background or even just the boy rustling in the bedsheets. While Tobio was normally quiet and did his own thing, that didn’t stop Keiji from missing his very presence from the room.

“Tobio, Nii-chan is going to study hard,” Keiji thought as he remembered one last thing that Ukai had told him.

_“If you do well in your studies, I will let you go watch the volleyball team at nationals. I know how close you are to the boys.”_

_“Anything to make Tobio happy. Anything to see Bokuto-san in action,”_ Keiji thought as he began to scribble down his notes.

It was just for three weeks. After that, freedom!

…

“Where’s Keiji?” Suga asked when he saw Tobio seated in the corner of the room alone, bouncing a volleyball against the wall with scary precision. Ever since he had managed to get his hands on a mini volleyball, the boy had taken every chance he got to practice his moves. Suga couldn’t even remember being able to set to the wall with that much precision until he was well into his elementary school years.

“Good morning, Suga-kun. I will be helping out starting from now until the exam period is over,” Takeda beamed as he gave him a low bow. Suga always thought of the man as a man of mystery; no matter how much he got himself drunk, and believe me, Suga can drink like a king and Takeda was no better, but the man never spilt the beans about his life. He only knew him as the beaming butler from the Ukai household who had served the family for generations.

Once the other kids had come in, the whole group sat in a circle as Suga introduced the kids to him. The twins merely stuck their tongues at him while the babies cooed, Shouyou just beaming like the sun as the man introduced himself, “Hi kids. I will be replacing Keiji-kun for a while. I hope I can be good friends with you all.”

“Keiji busy?” Shouyou asked as Suga smiled, “He has to study hard for his exams.”

“Exams?” Osamu echoed as Atsumu asked, ‘Study?”

“Yes. You need to study in order to do well in life,” Suga said, trying not to think of the number of times he actually thought most of the stuff he studied in school was an utter waste of time.

_“Sorry kids. Gotta tell you the lie for a while longer,”_ he apologised just as Tobio squeaked, “We study hard!”

“Ah, you mean writing hiragana? You haven’t learnt how to write, haven’t you?” Suga asked as Shouyou beamed, “We learn to write!”

“We write!” the twins yelped as the babies squealed. Takeda laughed as he smiled at the kids, turning to Suga who looked at him as he said, “How about we test your teaching skills, Suga-sensei?”

…

“Argh! I’m freaking dying here!” Konoha groaned as he slumped onto Keiji’s desk, draping himself over it as the raven sighed, “Konoha, please refrain from covering my notes.”

“Akaashi! Don’t be so mean! Don’t tell me you’re being grumpy because of not seeing Bokuto!” Konoha whined as Keiji reminded himself to not nail Konoha in the face. It had been around a week or so since he had begun studying for his exams and he hoped he had all of the information needed in his head. Konoha had the threat of not being in the starting line up looming over his head plus a possible break up from his girlfriend (Keiji didn’t know if the guy was kidding or for real since every girl he had asked out turned their heel and scrammed).

“I swear, who was the freaking idiot who invented geography? I don’t give a living shit on who lives where dammit!!!” Konoha groaned as he draped himself once more over the desk.

This was going to be a long three weeks for all of them.

…

“I’m dead,” Bokuto groaned as he collapsed onto the ground dramatically, Kuroo barking out a laugh as Kenma whacked him over the head with a textbook.

‘Come on kitten! Have a bit of fun!”

“You idiots better get studying or else we’re going to get our butts kicked in nationals. Especially you, Bokuto,” Kenma spat as the owl shrivelled into a ball, “I hate studying!”

“I know you have a scholarship and everything man but just try to pass everything!”

“I’m not Western! Why do I need English?!” the boy whined as Kenma pinched his nose, “You say hey hey hey all the time.”

‘That’s my motto!”

“Can we please study or else I’m kicking you out of the room.”

“Why kitten?! It's _my_ room!” Kuroo howled as he was nailed in the face by a pillow.

…

**Two weeks later…**

“It's over. We’ve been to hell and back. finally!” Konoha yelled as the class threw their papers into the air. Even Keiji couldn’t help but smile as he saw the class celebrating, the teacher trying his best to calm them down without trying to run out of the room for the staff drinking part.

“Ah! We finally get to practice again! I hope Bokuto passed his damned exams! That owl is going to be the bane of our existence if he doesn’t pass!” Konoha groaned as he stretched, his bones popping out of their sockets. Keiji quickly moved to pack his things away before excusing himself from the class, hurrying down the hall as he tried to contain the excitement on his face.

“Niichan!” Tobio squealed as soon as he opened the door. Keiji beamed at him as he scooped his brother into his arms, the other children scrambling to hold onto his legs as Tobio brandished something into his face.

“What is this, Tobio?”

“Me write niichan’s name!” Tobio squeaked as Keiji gently pried the paper from his face. His heart stuttered when he saw his name written in messy hiragana, his brother smiling widely at him as the rest of the kids did the same.

“Me write your name too!” Atsumu squealed as Shouyou yelled, “Mine too! I wrote owange!”

“Me too,” Osamu mumbled as Suga laughed, “In other words, they all wrote your name.”

“Tobio, I’m happy that you wrote my name but maybe you should have learnt yours first,” Keiji smiled as Tobio shook his head, “Me wove niichan! Niichan name good!” Keiji nearly felt his heart melt as he hugged his brother tightly, Takeda and Suga pretending to wipe away tears from their eyes as the kids shouted at him to play with them.

A week later, Keiji held his report card in his hands with pride. His scores were all in the 80s, a smile spreading on his face as he held it close to his chest.

_“We’re really going, Tobio. We’re going to go watch Fukurodani play at nationals!”_


	18. Sick owl day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't want to spoil anything so just wait until you get to the end notes.

Keiji couldn’t believe that they were already halfway through the school year. Gone were the days of t-shirts and wearing shorts, instead replaced with jackets and thermals. Keiji was luckily ok with the cold but poor Tobio had to be swaddled in blankets and layers upon layers of thick jackets to make sure he was warm enough.

That didn’t mean that Keiji was resistant to the cold.

For once, Keiji wished he was an idiot as, you know what they say; idiots can’t fall sick.

“Eh, are you ok, Keiji-kun?” Suga asked worriedly into the phone as Keiji coughed into it. When he had woken up that morning to Tobio curled up on his chest drooling on his shirt, he had tried to pry the boy off to go to school only to fall on the ground. He narrowly managed to stop himself from falling onto the ground, but not before hitting his head hard against the table and nearly giving himself a concussion. Tobio’s wails had alerted Takeda and Ukai to the scene, the little boy tugging at his brother who was trying to stabilise himself by holding onto the table.

“Bed. Now. Don’t you dare move or I swear I’m going to have to tie you to the bedpost,” Ukai ordered as the teen begrudgingly followed. His head was threatening to split into half if he ever so dared moved, his body reminding him of the not too many times he had gotten sick. His head felt stuffed with cotton and his legs trembled at the smallest step. Even opening his eyes proved to be a heavy task, Takeda slowly helping the boy into the bed whilst Ukai picked up a sniffling Tobio.

“Come on Tobio. We can’t have you in here and getting sick too. Kids getting sick is much worse than teenagers falling ill,” Ukai said as he led the boy out. Tobio cast his brother a forlorn look, squirming to join him on the bed as Keiji managed to rasp out, “Don’t worry, Tobio. I will come to play with you when I’m better, ok?” Tobio pouted as Ukai brought him out, Takeda moving to the kitchen to get some medicine and cloth as Keiji phoned Suga to tell him of the situation.

“And that’s what happened. Don’t worry, I will be back in a day.”

“Don’t jinx it. Rest well, you’ve been working way too hard,” Suga chided as Keiji was reminded of the days he had to spend after school taking care of the kids whilst trying to tutor Bokuto who was still close to having to take remedials if he fell one point below. While he didn’t mind being in the presence of the owlish teen, having to juggle between taking care of babies, his own brother and a manchild was proving to be too much.

Keiji closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift into sleep, trying to stop himself from hacking out his lungs as he felt a wet cloth pressing against his forehead.

“So cold,” he thought as he fell asleep, his snores filling the air as Takeda ran a hand through his hair.

Downstairs, Ukai had managed to haul a very reluctant Tobio into the kitchens. The boy glared at his reflection in the polished floor as though it had done something wrong, his hands clenched into fists as Ukai bonked him on the head with a lemon.

“Come on, pouting won’t get you anywhere kid. To make your niichan better, we have to make him some good food.” Ukai handed him a lemon, the boy staring at it as he picked it up. He smelt it before sticking out his tongue, muttering “Sour” under his breath as Ukai laughed, “Medicine never tastes great, kid. Come on, I will cut it into two and let you squeeze out some juice.” The old man proceeded to cut it, Tobio wondering if he was truly a demon with how terrifying he looked with a knife as the man let out a karate chop sound, bringing the knife down to slice the lemon into two neat halves. He handed it over to Tobio, who took it in his tiny hands before offering him a small cup.

“Squeeze as much as you can.”

‘Niichan drink this, get better?” Tobio asked as Ukai scratched his head, “If we never try, we’ll never know right?” Tobio nodded as he sat down, positioning the lemon on top of the cup as he began to squeeze. The little boy panted as he used all of his strength to squeeze, nearly dropping the lemon several times as he heard the single drop of lemon juice hitting the bottom of the cup. He quickly set it down on the floor to see the tiny droplet in the centre of the cup, a wide smile spreading on his face as he continued to squeeze.

“This kid has spunk,” Ukai thought as he opened the drawer to find the squeezer inside. He couldn’t help but think of the days when Keishin used to do the very same thing, sitting on the ground squeezing lemon into a cup for his sick mother or father with determination akin to Tobio’s.

“Hey, Keishin, am I being a good grandfather now?” he thought as Tobio continued on his conquest, squeezing every little drop out of the lemon until it covered the bottom of the cup.

…

_Keiji very rarely had dreams of his parents. Ever since he was young, he never did spend enough time with them to warrant having an attachment to them, which did help in the grieving process in a way. When they died, he had packed away whatever feelings he had into a box to store deep into his heart, promising he had to stay strong for Tobio who didn’t even know much about them. Already, Keiji himself was forgetting how his parents look; the smile on his mother’s face, his father lanky frame covering the doorframe whenever he leaned to give Keiji a peck on the forehead. He was even forgetting how they sounded like._

_In this dream, Keiji was standing in the genkan of his old home, his parents preparing to go out. His mother was slipping on her shoes, chattering about how excited she was to go to Hawaii and do the hula while her husband was checking the batteries in the camera. Keiji held Tobio in his arms, the little boy scowling at his parents as their father laughed, “Come on Tobio. Don’t be so sad! We’ll bring you to Hawaii someday!” The little boy gave a growl as his father patted him on the head, making Tobio smile ever so slightly as their mother beamed at them._

_“Hey, Keiji. Thank you for taking care of the house all the time. We knew we could always count on you,” his mother beamed as his father chuckled, “We raised a good son, didn’t we?”_

No. He wasn’t a good brother. He wasn’t a good son. He got sick and cannot take care of Tobio and the other kids. He wasn’t doing as well in school as he should have and he didn’t even have much of a social life (if it counted hanging out with Kuroo and Bokuto who had the brains of four year olds).

_“No, mum. Dad. I’m not as great as you think.”_

_“Don’t be silly! You’re amazing in taking care of Tobio. I do feel sorry for leaving him behind with you all the time but he’s too young to take onto a plane,” their mother pondered as her husband laughed, “Don’t be silly dear! Toddlers go on aeroplanes all the time! He will be fine. Say, how about we take him just this once? He’s going to love going to the beach.”_

No. Please, don’t go. If you go, you will never come back.

_“That’s a splendid idea dear. We don’t need to worry about packing his things. We can just go pick some up from Hawaii later. Oh, I can’t wait to dress him up in Hawaiian shirts,” their mother giggled as Keiji tried to open his mouth to speak, to warn them that this would be the last time they would ever see one another. Nothing came out of his throat, his tongue stuck as he desperately tried to scream._

Don’t go! If you go, you will die and never come back! Please, don’t take Tobio away from me too!

_“Come along Tobio. We’re going to miss the flight if we don’t hurry! Ah, I wonder what we’re going to do with you on the plane,” their mother smiled as Keiji screamed, “Don’t! Don’t go! Please! Don’t take him away from me! please! He’s the only one I have left!” His words fell on deaf ears, Keiji reaching to touch his brother only to find his hand smashing against an invisible wall. He screamed as he pounded on the glass, trying desperately to reach his family as the door began to shut behind them. Tobio was staring intently at him, his blue eyes wide as he reached out for his older brother._

_“Tobio! Don’t go! Please! Don’t go! Don’t leave me all alone!” Keiji begged as the door slammed shut, sending him spinning into darkness. His tears flowed uncontrollably as he tried to rush after them, tumbling through the darkness until he felt something patting on his cheek._

“Niichan,” a voice whimpered as Keiji slowly opened his eyes to see Tobio seated on top of him. The small boy had tears in his eyes as he gently wiped away his tears with his tiny hands, Keiji feeling his heart sink with relief at that being a dream when he realised his eyes were beginning to sting.

“Tobio! Don’t go touching your brother after touching lemon!” Ukai yelled as he plucked off the boy from Keiji. Tobio yelped as Keiji quickly wiped his eyes, his head already feeling much better as he tried to get the sting away.

“Tobio, what were you doing playing with lemon?” Keiji rasped as Ukai gave Tobio a pat on the head, “Your brother made you a drink to make you better. Here, have some honey lemon.” The old man handed a glass to Keiji, who took it with both hands. He let out an internal sigh of relief as warmth seeped into his cold hands, bring the cup to his lips as he drank. As the liquid sloshed down his throat, he let out an ahh of satisfaction as Tobio asked, “Niichan good?”

“No. Not yet. But I will be,” Keiji smiled as Ukai set Tobio down on the bed. The boy wriggled towards him and threw his arms around Keiji, nearly causing him to drop his drink as Tobio gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Pain go bye bye! Me wove niichan!” he squeaked as Keiji nearly felt himself tearing up. He set down his glass to give his brother a hug, not caring if he might be giving him some of his germs as he thought, _“Hey, gods. At least you didn’t take Tobio away from me.”_

…

“Eh?! Akaashi is sick?!” Bokuto yelled as the babies began to cry. The boy had rushed straight from practice to see the kids and Akaashi of course (he didn’t want to say he wanted to see Akaashi the most) only to be greeted with a slightly overwhelmed Suga who was having Shouyou hanging off his shoulders while the twins hung on his arms. The babies were chasing each other on the ground, Hajime chasing Tooru in circles as Suga smiled weakly, “Well hello to you too.”

“I’m going to go see him!” Bokuto announced as Suga laughed, “Just because you’re an idiot doesn’t mean you won’t get sick.”

“Suga-san!” Bokuto yelled as Shouyou ran towards his uncle, tackling his leg into a hug as he yelled, “Uncle Kou! Me hungwy!”

“Hungwy!” the twins yelled as the babies babbled.

“I know. I know. Arghh, how did someone like Akaashi get sick?” Bokuto groaned as he picked up his nephew, wishing he could have an angelic face to brighten up his day ever so slightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys remember how cute Kotarou was trying to squeese the lemon in the anime (I was rooting for him so bad when he was first trying to squeese it ahhh!! So damn cute!!!!) This was one of my favourite anime episodes in the series. Dang when would season 2 come out!! They have enough material to churn out a next season!!!!


	19. Sad owl needs hugs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is slightly Bokuto-centric since our favourite owl boy needs a lot of love and hugs.

Bokuto Koutarou was a very simple person; hand him a volleyball and he was as happy as a teenager could be.

Ever since he could remember, his world revolved around that single ball. With his parents mostly consumed with work, the boy didn’t have an outlet to channel his excessive energy. Before volleyball was a part of his life, Bokuto had been just wasting his time trying to drive people crazy or making other kids question him. It wasn’t his fault that he was more hyper than the average person.

At that time, his sister had gone to college and in the process, snagged herself a boyfriend. Said boyfriend ended up becoming her husband a good ten years down the line but the man had changed Bokuto’s world forever the day he brought him a volleyball as a gift and taught him how to play the sport.

Bokuto had come to love and breath the sport and he quickly made a name for himself on the court as an energetic wing spiker whose spikes were like cannonballs. Bokuto thought he had found his calling in life, but there was one thing missing from the sport that was integral to it; teamwork.

While he loved his team and often tried to get along with them, not anyone could deal with his hyper energy or his willingness to go above and beyond for the sport. He didn’t have to be a genius to know that some of them were even questioning his mental capabilities, with his mood swings coming and going at random times to disrupt the game. Bokuto had ended the volleyball careers of some players unintentionally when his mood swings got the better of him on the court.

_Weirdo. Freak. Hyper kid._

Those were the names thrown at Bokuto ever since he could remember. When he was younger, he didn’t pay any mind to it but as he grew older, he began to realise that he was much more different than other kids than he would like to. It didn’t help that his parents weren’t around to help him either, causing him to navigate through the murky waters known as childhood and teenagehood. The only people in his life who gave him the time of day was his sister and his brother in law. The man had gone on to become a professional volleyball player and now played across several foreign leagues in pursuit of his dream.

That was when he became an uncle.

When Shouyou was born, Bokuto had cooed and worshipped the little bundle of joy. Even though he was a newborn, the smile on the child’s face was bright enough to light up even the darkest cave and Bokuto couldn’t help but feel himself getting drawn in by his nephew’s energy. It was no surprise that he followed his father’s footsteps in becoming a volleyball maniac and would take every opportunity to try and grab onto a volleyball.

“Have fun in the US,” Bokuto grinned as his brother in law laughed, “Sure will. The League there is insanely tough but I will.”

“Come on, Haruka. Say goodbye to Shouyou,” his sister smiled as she handed her husband his son. The boy cooed and gurgled as his father raised him into the air, giving him kisses on both of his cheeks before snuggling him close, “Take good care of your mama, ok? Daddy will be home in a while.”

“Daddy pway wolleyvall?” Shouyou squeaked as his father bopped him on the nose, “Sure will squirt. Daddy will win lots and stay on the court for a long time.” He raised a pinky for his son to grasp onto, the toddler laughing as his father gave him one final kiss before turning to his brother-in-law.

“Take care of Miyuki for me, Koutarou.”

“Eh?!”

“Don’t scare him away, Haruka,” Miyuki groaned before reaching to give her a husband a peck on the lips. The man quickly said his goodbyes before stepping into the car that would take him to the airport. The small family waved as the car disappeared down the street, Shouyou shouting to his father “Me wove you!” as Bokuto rubbed his nephew’s head.

“Come on Shouyou. How about I teach you some passes?”

…

Fukurodani Academy did not expect to be kicked out of the running so early into the game. They had been one of the favourites to win the Interhigh and here they were, in round two, their very first match since they were a seeded team and they were brought to their knees by a no-name team from Miyagi that many people hadn’t even heard off.

Karasuno. The school of crows. Clipped wings. Flightless crows. Those were the names thrown at them as the school walked onto the court. Once, they were a powerhouse school but after many years, they had fallen down the ranks and only just managed to climb back to the top with the help of a very terrifying player. Despite him standing not even at 160cm, his eyes were enough to scare the living shit out of every tall player on the court and his jumps and spikes were so hard, Bokuto nearly felt himself crumbling to the ground, his feet cemented to prevent him from moving away from them.

The Little Giant. That was what they called him.

“Come on, bro. Let’s line up,” Kuroo whispered as they walked towards the net. Bokuto was still staring at the ground, his sweat dripping onto the ground as he tried to grasp what was going on. He needs to stay on the court for longer. He wants to continue playing volleyball. He didn’t want to retire just like the other third years would probably do to focus on their studies.

Without volleyball, he was nothing.

With them having lost the game early on, Bokuto wouldn’t be able to get scouted unless, by some minuscule chance, some of the scouts had not noticed the number of times he broke down on the court or nearly had a temper tantrum. No one wanted a player with such volatile temperament on their team. Bokuto had been trying to fix that for years, begged the gods to even help him but no one came to his aid. He knew he most probably needed professional help to but there was only so much someone could do to help him. Taking medication would only be breaking the rules of using enhancements so Bokuto was left all alone on the court to deal with his thoughts.

Bokuto came face to face with the Litte Giant, the small player reaching out to shake his hand with a smile. His golden-brown eyes continued to dig into his soul as Bokuto shook his hand hard, the owl trying his best not to cry as they thanked one another for a good game. The moment the Little Giant released his hand however, he had felt so empty and lost.

“Come on boys. Let’s head back to the Academy,” Daichi called as they packed their bags and left. The team was surprisingly quiet, lacking the usual energy of its members.

Kuroo and Kenma were keeping to themselves, Kenma supporting Kuroo most of the way as the giant cat tried his best not to cry. Konoha was silently sobbing into his jacket, Komi patting his back while Washio and Onaga trailed behind. Kita watched his students walked past before joining the group, the adviser looking close to tears as well seeing how the journey of his students had ended so quickly as they boarded the bus.

“Hey, dude. Are you alright?” Kuroo asked as Bokuto slumped into his seat. He really didn’t want to talk right now; how could he be alright after all of this?

“Say, Kuroo. Are you going to continue volleyball after this?”

“Eh, who knows? I don’t know if I will since we have exams coming up.” Bokuto stiffened at his words as he thought of the worst-case scenario. A team without his best friend, without his current members, how was he going to survive?

…

Keiji was sitting in his bed reading a book since he hadn’t quite recovered from his sickness yet. His body was feeling much better and less clammy, although his head still spun if he tried to get up too fast. Tobio had been kept away from him the entire time, the little boy spending every moment he could with Takeda instead of Ukai much to the old man’s horror.

He was still reeling over the fact he couldn't go and watch Fukurodani play on the first day of nationals but he told himself he might be able to go the next day if his health permits him to. 

So the last thing he expected was a phone call from Kuroo Tetsurou of all people. He didn’t even know when he had programmed his number into his phone; Bokuto must have done it when he wasn’t looking (he’s my best bro! He doesn’t mean any harm!). He was quite adamant in ignoring it but the moment he put it on silent mode and Kuroo called for a minute non-stop did he finally picked it up to hear Kuroo wailing on the other side.

“Hello?”

“Oh thank the gods, Akaashi! We just came back to the Academy and Bo decided to go somewhere and never came back! I hope he didn’t do something stupid because I have a very bad feeling he might have!”

“Slow down, Kuroo-san. Why would he do something like that?”

“Uh, we lost nationals?” Oh right, Keiji had totally forgotten that had been a thing and already, he could imagine how dejected the boy would be right now having lost such an important match.

“I will come to you now.”

“Wait! I thought you were sick!” Kuroo yelped as Keiji sighed, “Its fine. It's not like it would affect Bokuto-san anyways now that you don’t have to play.” He could almost feel Kuroo stiffening at the thought, Keiji quickly slipping into his jacket as he walked out of the door. He was about to sprint to the gate when he saw a huddled form peeking at the gate of the house, familiar white hair peeking out as he spoke into the phone, “I found him. He’s at my house.”

“Eh?! How did he manage to get there so quickly?” Kuroo yelped as Keiji groaned, “I will talk to him now. Until then, go tell Daichi-sensei and Kita-sensei where he is.” He made his way to the huddle form as Bokuto perked up his ears, swivelling his head around. His face was surprisingly dry, although red as Keiji knelt down next to him.

“Bokuto-san, are you alright?”

“We lost, Akaashi. We lost. I don’t even know what to do anymore…” the boy sniffled as he wiped away a single tear, “I won’t get scouted at this rate. I won’t be able to get any offers for teams and I don’t want to go to uni on a scholarship either. You know how much I suck at studying.” Bokuto poked at his shoes, his finger digging into the material as he gulped, “What am I going to do, Akaashi? I can’t live without volleyball.” The hurt in his voice pained Keiji, the boy reaching out to tap Bokuto on his shoulder as the older boy shuddered.

“It's ok to lose at times. As long as you pick yourself up, it's fine.”

“But how am I going to play? I’m sure Kuroo and the other guys are going to retire after this. They don’t want to keep playing when they have exams! I’m ok with Kenma but once Kuroo is gone, the guy doesn’t have much enthusiasm left to match up. How am I going to play when I don’t have my team behind my back?”

“What the hell are you talking about Bo?” a voice snapped as Keiji realised he had forgotten to end the call. Kuroo’s voice floated from the other side of the phone, Bokuto looking a little confused as to why he could hear his best friend when he heard other people speaking into the phone, indicating he must have put it on speaker mode.

“You think we’re just going to quit after what the hell happened back there? I don’t think so,” Onaga said as Washio piped it, “We have a score to settle with Itachiyama, don’t you forget.”

“Come back, ace! Even though you can be a pain in the ass, you’re still our captain and best man on the team!” Konoha half yelled and cried into the phone as Kenma sighed, “I don’t get demotivated that easily, Bokuto-san.”

“Guys…”

“And don’t you ever think that I will ever abandon my best bro! Volleyball is something I plan to do for a long time, just maybe not on the court. I will never leave you behind until we make Itachiyama kiss our asses, you got it?” Kuroo barked as Bokuto began to cry. The boy wiped away large crocodile tears from his face when he heard another voice speaking inside, the boys shuffling away as Kita spoke into the phone.

“Bokuto-kun, I used to say that we don’t need memories. It is true to a certain degree as that means that we only have to live in the present and make sure we make the best out of it. But now, I see that memories are important in helping us keep going so make sure you burn the memory of the defeat into your mind. They may have gotten us now, but that doesn’t mean we will lose again in the face of challenge.”

“Bokuto, volleyball is a sport where we always look up! What is the motto of Fukurodani?” Daichi asked as Bokuto whispered, “Pour all your soul into each ball.”

“Exactly. As long as you have a volleyball in your hand, make sure you pour every ounce of your fibre and being into it. As long as you have a ball in your hand, you are still a volleyball player on the court.” Bokuto shook as Keiji patted his back, stroking him gently as Bokuto sniffled, “Sorry for bailing on you guys.”

“Its ok. We all make emotional decisions.” Keiji didn’t miss the hanging question on why Bokuto had gone to his house of all places after their defeat, the sound of boys clambering on the other side echoing out of the phone as Konoha shouted, “Come on guys!”

There was the sound of shuffling feet and hands slapping on top of each other before everyone shouted, “One two three, fever!”

“Come on! Once we rest up today, back to training tomorrow so be prepared for it!”

“Yes Daichi-sensei!” everyone shouted as Bokuto sniffled, “Thanks guys.”

“Alright alright. Now get your sorry owl ass back here so we can kick you properly for giving us a heart attack!” Kuroo said as the call ended, Keiji slipping the phone into his pocket just as Bokuto barrelled into him.

“Akaashi! Thank you for making me feel better!” he wailed as Keiji patted his back, “No worries, Bokuto-san.” He tried to ignore how sweaty he was as the boy gave him a peck on the cheek without warning, not even blushing the slightest as he turned tail and ran back to school. Keiji was left blushing furiously and his heart pounding so hard he thought it would fly out of his chest, his hand reaching to touch his cheek as he himself warm up once more.


	20. Under the mistletoe on Christmas Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn I can't believe we're on the second last chapter now! Been a wild rollercoaster ride for this story and the epilogue will be coming out tomorrow around the same time so stay tuned for it!
> 
> On a side note, I had a crazy ephipany last night whilst watching Junjou Romantica about trying to get my book published. Went crazy last summer in trying to write several novels and all of them being rejected one after another just killed my spark for writing until I got back into writing. While I don't mind having to bear the costs for publishing and all of that, I keep wondering if people would even want to read it and if it is even worth putting it out there only for people to tear it down if they got their hands on it. Just feel so down about it since I don't have much confidence in my writing... even my fan fiction writing is going a little bit downhill at the moment but oh well... just a thought about IRL (which sucks so bad arghhh!!!).
> 
> I really don't know what to do with myself. Career choices don't seem to be the best at the moment and just looking at how everything is going to the dumps in the world ain't helping either... I just hate myself as a human being so much sometimes with how I can't just survive in the world on my own.
> 
> Sorry about my ranting but just needed to get it out of my system, had a pretty emotional night about it.

“Yo, Akaashi. What are you going to do for Christmas?”

“Nothing much.”

“Eh?! Nothing at all? It’s the most romantic time of the year so shouldn’t you be doing something with Bokuto? This would be the perfect opportunity for you two to literally kiss and make up,” Konoha grinned as Keiji groaned internally. He had been so packed with studying, taking care of the kids and helping the volleyball team keep Bokuto in check whenever he decided he rather grace the daycare with his presence instead of training that he hadn’t even thought about the holiday. His parents hardly did anything major during Christmas anyways in his eyes so he never thought of it as more than a day to stay at home with the family.

That didn’t mean Tobio was having the same train of thought though.

“Santa!” Tobio had said every time they had passed by one of the bearded men. Keiji didn’t want to ruin the little boy’s idea of Santa just being random people dressed up in red fat suits so he played along whenever Tobio tried to stop for something Santa related.

“Don’t tell me you’re not even going to play Santa for your kid brother,” Konoha asked as they finished packing their things. Classes had finally ended for the day and one week to go till Christmas. Keiji had just thought of cooking a meal for Ukai and Takeda as thanks for everything they had done for the past year for them and maybe get a new volleyball related gift for Tobio. The boy was growing more crazy for the sport by the day, which made life for Keiji a bit easier since he knew what to distract him with now.

Wow, it’s been nearly a year since their parents died. Keiji still hadn’t fully processed how Tobio would take to their parents not coming home since he was too young to remember. He hoped that one day, when the question does pop up that he would be able to answer him properly about it.

Keiji merely shrugged and made his way down to the daycare, his mind going off tangents to what he used to do during Christmas. The most he remembered was his father dressing up as Santa Claus and giving hi presents, although he soon learned at a young age of five that Santa Claus wasn’t real considering his father would never be present when he received his presents.

“So, what are you doing for Christmas?” Suga asked as Keiji sighed. The Christmas mood was really breaking into the atmosphere of the school, with some students asking each other out for Christmas dates in the corridor and even trying to kiss under some mistletoe. Kuroo and Kenma were some such people; he didn’t expect the two to try in the gym a couple of minutes before practice when he had gone to pick up Shouyou from the gym. His uncle had been no where to be seen at that time and the poor boy had merely looked on as the two teenagers kissed.

“Nothing much.”

“You really need to loosen up more,” Suga groaned, thinking of the date he had set up with Daichi to go to the hotsprings over Christmas. He was already thinking of how amazing it would be soaking in the springs in the frigid weather and seeing Daichi in a yukata. Suga mentally licked his lips at the thought when Shouyou and the twins came barrelling into him, hugging onto his legs as Shouyou squeaked, “I wanna a new volleyball!”

“We want jerseys!” the twins squeaked as the babies squeaked from the corner. Tobio merely glared at the picture of Santa Claus Suga had put up on the wall, his eyes showing the intent of meeting the man as Keiji made a mental note of trying to find a costume for the act later on.

He still had a few days to plan; it shouldn’t be too hard.

…

The next few days flew by faster than he thought. He would go to the daycare before class, take care of the kids and chat with their parents. Kita mentioned possibly going over to Korea to visit Ushijima where he was playing a match at the moment, although he didn’t know if it would be a good idea to bring the twins along with how noisy they were. The Oikawa and Iwaizumi families were staying at home that Christmas while Shouyou and Bokuto were supposed to fly to the US for Christmas. Bokuto was already whining at how miserable the flight would be and dreading how he was going to distract Shouyou on the plane.

On Christmas Day, Keiji woke up to Tobio already awake and looking abashed on the bed, hiding a poorly concealed Christmas card behind his back. It took a while to coax the boy to give the card properly since he seemed very reluctant to let go of it, the boy muttering “Merry Christmas” in a broken sentence as he ran into his brother for a hug. He could even feel how hot his brother was from blushing so much, Keiji taking in the badly drawn but cute card with hiragana written messily all over it.

“Good morning, Keiji-kun. Tobio-kun,” Takeda beamed as Keiji gaped at the spread on the table. Every possible food imaginable for the Christmas meal was laid out in front of them. A large turkey sat in the middle of the table, with a log cake and friend shrimp surrounding it. Tobio was already drooling at the sight of the food as Keiji fastened his volleyball bib onto him, setting him into the baby highchair as Keiji thanked for the food.

“Thanks for the food. But this is a lot.”

“I prepared enough to satisfy you for Christmas. I also have news that the Headmaster is unable to spend the day with you as he has an important meeting today.” Tobio visibly looked sadder, his eyes dropping as he murmured, “Take eat with us?”

“Sorry, Tobio-kun but I have to return to my duties. I hope you enjoy your Christmas meal,” he beamed, bowing apologetically before making his way out of the room. As soon as the door closed behind him, Keiji truly felt the loneliness of spending Christmas without his parents or with the presence of people around him. While he was happy Tobio was there with him, the toddler didn’t look any happier about the situation, holding onto his fork as he glared at the food as though it had done something wrong.

Well, at least Keiji had a backup plan in mind. He had already stashed the Santa Claus suit Konoha had lent to him in the bathroom, complete with a fatsuit to make him look at least the part. He had been planning to slip out whilst they were eating but without anyone to distract Tobio when he was changing, this was going to prove challenging.

“Sorry, Tobio. But I've got to use the toilet first. You stay here and eat first,” Keiji said as Tobio gave a little whine, “Niichan leaving?”

  
“It will only be a while,” Keiji reassured him as he got out of his seat, giving Tobio a pat on the head before heading out.

It didn’t take long for him to realise that his brother was trailing after him, his glare burning into his back as Keiji sighed, “Tobio, do you want to follow me to the toilet?”

Tobio gave a grunt in response, Keiji sighing as he surrendered his fate. He walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind him as Tobio trailed in after him, watching as his brother sat on the toilet seat in defeat as Keiji bowed his head. Sheesh, Tobio sure was persistent and this is proving to be difficult. He already felt bad for just having the two of them for Christmas but if Tobio wouldn’t even let him change…

How did his dad use to do it last time? From what he recalled, he would slip away when they had cake and then he would excuse himself to the toilet before there was a ring on the doorbell. That was when…

The sound of the doorbell ringing across the room jumped Keiji out of his thoughts, Tobio turning to the door as he squeaked, “Santa!” He quickly began to try and climb to get the doorknob, Keiji picking him up to bring him outside as the doorbell ringing got more insistent. He slowly opened the door, a blast of cold wind hitting his face just as a very large man with a white beard barrelled into them followed by a very familiar loud “Hey hey hey” filled their ears.

“Hey hey hey! Merry Christmas!” Bokuto yelled as Keiji managed to recognise him from under his costume. Keiji’s eyes were wide as he saw everyone whom had told him that they would be away for the holidays standing before him, all of them smiling as they shouted, “Merry Christmas!” to the two brothers. Tobio was smiling for the first time in ages, the twinkle in his eyes bright as he yelled, “Santa!” Bokuto laughed as he allowed the boy to climb into his arms, tugging at his beard as the owl boy produced him a small package.

“Here is a gift for a good boy.” Tobio yelped as he ripped into the paper, screaming when he saw a miniature volleyball wrapped up in it. The boy began to squeak as his daycare fellows ran up to them, trying to have a go at the volleyball when Ukai stepped forward, a smile on his face as he grinned, “Liked the surprise?”

“Yes, its just I thought…”

“We thought you and Tobio deserve to have a great Christmas this year so we will be spending it here with you,” Kuroo grinned, his arm wrapped around Kenma who was swaddled in many layers of clothing as the puddinghead muttered, “We don’t think you can finish all the food anyways right?” Keiji could almost feel himself tearing up as he held his hand to his chest, a smile spreading across his face as Bokuto’s eyes widened, “Eh?! Did Akaashi just smile?”

“Don’t make it more awkward, Bokuto-san,” Keiji muttered as he hid his face in his hands, trying to stop the blush spreading across his face when Takeda called out from inside, “Come on in! The food is getting cold!”

…

“Man! That was amazing!” Bokuto grinned as he patted his stomach. He had shed out of his Santa Claus suit after giving out gifts to the kids. The children were now playing in the drawing room, their parents praying they wouldn’t break anything in the house as they chatted with one another. Mr Hinata was chatting with Ushijima, who was holding Kita in his embrace about various volleyball techniques and the current situation in the league. The women were chatting amongst each other on what they hoped to get in the boxing day sales and how their kids were being. Mr Iwaizumi and Mr Oikawa were playing with the babies, who had a new set of toys in front of them. Tooru was chewing on the Godzilla toy while Hajime was trying to bonk him on the head with another one. Ukai sat in the corner, watching as the others mingled with each other with a contented smile on his face.

“Come to think of it, where did Kuroo-san and Kenma-san go to?” Keiji wondered as Bokuto stretched, “Why don’t we go look for them? I think the kids are ok without us for now.” Tobio and Shouyou were wrestling to play with the volleyball, Keiji sighing as Bokuto offered him a hand. Keiji took it, letting the ace pull him to his feet before bringing him out and down the hall.

“Wow, this place is huge! How do you even navigate around?”

“It took a while,” Keiji muttered, thinking of the number of times he had accidently gone into the wrong room or walked in on either Takeda or Ukai taking a shower.

“Hm, where does this lead to?” Bokuto muttered as they stepped into what appeared to be a library. The door was opened, revealing the inside that had several shelves lining its walls as well as the curtains being opened, revealing the garden. Right underneath the entrance was what appeared to be mistletoe, hung hapzardly on a string as Keiji thought, “I am going to kill that damn cat.”

“Erm, Akaashi. I’ve actually been meaning to ask you something for a long time,” Bokuto stammered as he rubbed his hands together. For the first time, the boy looked nervous as he looked at the ground, his face turning red before he turned to Keiji, “I was going to ask you this if we won nationals but since we didn’t, I thought maybe I might do it now in case it doesn’t happen again.”

He gently took Keiji’s hands in his, his callused fingers rubbing over his hands as Bokuto blurted, “Akaashi Keiji! I like you! Please go out with me!” He went red to the tips of his ears, Keiji turning red as well as he tried not to explode over the confession.  
  


“Yes.” Bokuto’s eyes widened as Keiji stammered once more, “I will, you stupid owl.” His face was red and got even redder as Bokuto reached to cup the back of his head and give him a kiss, the two boys slowly kissing under the mistle toe as Keiji sighed.

This was a really nice first kiss. Not too rough, not too gentle. Just nice.

“Did Kuroo-san set this up?”

“I might have asked him for a favour.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yay they kissed!!!!
> 
> Next chapter is out tomorrow!!!


	21. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we're finally at the end of this story. Its been a wild month and a half of a rollercoaster ride writing this story and I hoped you all enjoyed reading it every step of the way! Gonna miss these cuties *wipes a tear away. 
> 
> If it helps, I found some Gakuen Babysitters X Haikyuu edits on Twitter so if you want some cute pics, you can check them out here :
> 
> [Aoba Johsai](https://twitter.com/boonooniee/status/1297084261669965824)
> 
> [Nekoma](https://twitter.com/boonooniee/status/1295631323730608134)
> 
> Now, hope you guys enjoy the final chapter to the series Gakuen Fukurodani Babysitters!!!

**Several years later…**

“Tobio, don’t forget your bento,” Keiji called as his younger brother slipped into his school shoes. The teenager groaned as he turned, taking the bento from his brother’s hands with a deep red blush spreading across his face, “Niichan, you don’t have to keep making bentos for me all the time.”

“I do it because I want to. Not to mention I need to make one for Bokuto-san and Shouyou-kun as well.”

“You don’t have to feed Hinata all the time! And plus, when are you going to start calling Bokuto-san Koutarou instead? You’ve been dating him for what, ten years now?” Tobio pointed out as Keiji sighed. It took a very long time to break habits and for some reason, calling him by his family name seemed to fit him just fine.

Fukurodani had gone on to win nationals that year and Bokuto skyrocketed to fame. Upon making it to the semi-finals he had been showered with offers from the best teams in the country, some of them even from overseas. After a lot of debate, he settled to begin his training in the US in the same state where his parents were before moving back to Japan eventually. Thus began their long distance relationship and despite so many hours and miles being apart, they always made time to be with one another.

Keiji graduated from Fukurodani a year later and majored in literature in university. He had been sad to leave the kids behind and after a lengthy process of finding someone to replace him and Suga, who had finally managed to get his teaching license, they had settled on a woman named Shimizu Kiyoko. While she looked stern, she was actually very good to the kids, being a mother herself and she took care of the kids until it was time for them to go to elementary school. Keiji would still help out during the holidays to help pay back Ukai’s generosity over the years and along the sidelines, he found himself studying on how to take care of children on a professional level, working as a babysitter to help ends meet in university.

Once he began to work, Tobio came to live with him. Keiji hadn’t wanted to impose on Ukai anymore but the man still welcomed them both back during the holidays. The Akaashi siblings grew stronger together, Tobio finding his place on the court with Shouyou and the twins, the babies following soon behind in their footsteps as they grew older. Now, the group were the strongest tag team on the court, with Shouyou and Tobio making a freak duo on the court while the twins were a force to be reckoned with as well due to how well they synced.

“Hey hey hey, morning gorgeous,” a sleepy voice yawned as Tobio clicked his tongue, “Bokuto-niichan, please don’t kiss my brother in front of me all the time.” The teenager was still navigating through the waters of his own emotions in the form of an orange-haired boy and Bokuto was no stranger to his nephew feeling the same way towards his boyfriend’s brother.

“Come on, you’re already a teenager and we do keep it down when we do do…”

“I don’t need to hear the details!” Tobio yelped as Bokuto laughed, reaching to ruffle the boy’s hair as Keiji chided at him to head to school. It wasn’t as though he wouldn’t be seeing him later; today was the day Fukurodani went to nationals for the first time ever since Bokuto left the team. Everyone had been waiting for the owl’s comeback on the court and with th arrival of the new monster generation, things couldn’t get any better.

“I’m off,” Tobio said as he bowed, opening the door and slamming it shut behind him. The wind was brisk, Keiji shivering in his pants as Bokuto wrapped his arms around him, pressing a kiss to his temple as he snuzzled into his shoulder, “This is just like ten years ago, isn’t it?”

“Come on. We need to get ready ourselves. The tournament begins at 10.”

  
“Keiji!!! Let’s snuggle a bit more!” Keiji patted the side of Bokuto’s face before moving to scratch his ears, making the man purr before detaching himself to freshen up. The owl followed soon after and after peppering him with kisses, they soon found themselves running a bit late for the tournament after things got a little heated up between the two of them. now, they stood in front of the stadium, throngs of students and reporters trying to get in. Keiji took in the sight before him, banners from all over the country of different slogans, shapes and colours filling the air.

One such banner caught Keiji’s attention, followed by a familiar snarky comment as he sighed, already seeing a group of students circling each other like foxes and weasals. One such boy had his hair dyed a bad blonde colour, his face nothing like when he was a toddler and full of innocence. His twin had resigned to his fate, lingering in the corner of the group as Atsumu faced off a boy with raven curls and a face mask, the scowl on his face bad enough to melt the floor.

“I tell you, Omi-kun. We’re gonna kick yer ass on the court.”

“And I tell you to stop following me wherever I go. What are you, a stalker?”

“I just need to size up my opponent before a match, ya weasel!” the Kita twin shouted as another boy, Itachiyama’s libero stepped in between them, the poor boy trying to break him apart as another boy stepped in, “Leave them alone, Kita.”

“Sunarin. Nice to see ya here. Is it nice playing with the weasels? Told ya you should have come to Fukurodani.”

“That’s my own choice,” Suna mumbled, his hooded eyes moving to fall on Osamu who pretended to look anywhere but them. It was no shocker that the twins had become acquainted with people from all over the country and that even included the boy who saved Tobio and Shouyou from being kidnaped when they were lost in the zoo all those years ago. Keiji just didn’t expected the to be trolling each other off the court.

“Hey hey hey fellas! Why don’t you settle this on the court instead of here?” Bokuto grinned as he marched to the boys, the twins moving to greet him as the others gawked at him.

It wasn’t all the time an Olympian would come and see his nephew on the court. Bokuto was a celebrity on the volleyball scene and people of all ages idolised him to the point of having bodypillows of him. Keiji was not ashamed to proclaim that he had one such item in his possession.

“Bokuto Koutarou?! Two time Olympian and wing spiker to the MSBY Black Jackals?” Komori gasped as even Suna stiffened. Atsumu gave a grin as he slung an arm casually around Bokuto’s neck, some of the players gawking at him as he gave Bokuto a bro fist, “We go way back, don’t we Bokkun?”

“Hey Tsum Tsum!” Bokuto grinned as a familiar shout sporting the black, gold and white colours of Fukurodani came barrelling into him, “Uncle Kou!”

“My little disciple!” Bokuto yelled as his nephew jumped onto him, Tobio trailing behind as he tried not to look at his brother. After being so clingy to him as a child, Keiji found it a little hurtful the teenager wanted nothing to do with his elder brother outside of the house.

“Alright people! Let’s get going! Bokuto, don’t hog my team anymore!” Daichi yelled as he pushed past the crowd, groaning when he saw the volleyball star in the middle of the group. It didn’t take long for Daichi to be tackled into a hug, the coach groaning as Kita-sensei gently pried him away from the man and excused the team for needing to do warmups.

“Bokuto Koutarou! May we have a word with you?” a voice called as reporters flocked the scene. Bokuto quickly reached to pull Keiji close to him to avoid him getting carried off by others, some people snapping shots of the action as Keiji blushed. He still wasn’t used to being in the spotlight and often more than not, people would try to speculate the man’s relationship with him. Keiji could already feel himself shrinking from the flashes of cameras when a mic was shoved into Bokuto’s face.

“Bokuto-san, how does it feel coming back to the stage where you won the title of national champion ten years ago?”

“Its amazing! My nephew is actually playing today as part of Fukurodani!”

“Do you mean Hinata Shouyou, the little giant?”

“That’s right! But you wanna watch out for the rest as well; Tobio is an amazing setter and the Kita twins are an amazing duo as well! Next year we look to see two new faces on the team which might mean things could get a little messy with how many of them are going to compete to get on the starting line up.” Tooru and Hajime were an amazing setter and spiker duo in their own right, the two already aiming to go to nationals on the same team as the boys who they played with as babies.

“With the Interhigh being one of the most important events of a player’s career, what advice do you have for players right now?”

“Ah! I actually wore a very cool shirt today and I think it embodies what I think is the most important in volleyball!” Bokuto removed his jacket to reveal a blue shirt with several sentences written over it, Keiji internally sighing at how he regretted buying the shirt for the man when he had gone to cheer for him at nationals. He had thought it had really embodied Bokuto’s life as a player but now seeing him wearing it to the point of fading even as an adult, he was beginning to question his choices in life.

“The Wisdom of the Ace. Firstly, the figure of the ace is one that inspires his allies. Secondly, he should shatter any wall. Thirdly, he should hit any ball to his utmost ability. You may not be an ace, but even as a normal player, if you live by these rules, you can be an awesome player in no time!” Bokuto grinned as Keiji internally face palmed himself.

“Do you have anything else to say for the cameras?” the reporter asked as Bokuto laughed, “Well, I do have one announcement to make for my fans.” The cameras clicked away as Bokuto grabbed onto Keiji’s hands, bringing them to kiss as he said, “From this point on, I am no longer available since I’m already taken by this angel.” Keiji turned a flame red as the crowd began to chatter, players turning heads to see what was going on as Keiji stammered, “Bokuto-san, what are you..”

“I’m asking you to marry me!” Keiji felt he had blown his brains as he nodded his head, Bokuto yelping as he hugged him tight before kissing him on the lips. Keiji was still in a daze as he let Bokuto drag him into the stadium, the reporters trying to follow after them until they were blocked off by security.

When they finally entered the main hall, they were met with Tobio and Shouyou gaping at them, Tobio a deeper shade of red than his brother for some reason while Shouyou was telling his uncle on how cool he was before showing he had bought the exact same t shirt. Both uncle and nephew were hooting and laughing about their shirts while the Kita twins looked at Keiji before muttering, “Adults’ while Daichi and Kita were trying not to laugh.

“Come on, we have had enough of a distraction! Let’s go win this game!” Daichi yelled as everyone turned to the double doors leading onto the orange court. Even from here, Keiji could smell salonpas wafting in the air, the ornage court glaring at them from within as the sound of the crowd chanting echoed through their bones.

“Fukurodani, fight!”

“Fight!” everyone yelled as Shouyou grinned, “I ain’t gonna lose, Tobio.”

“Neither am I, boke!” Tobio snapped as the twins clapped them on the backs and steered them inside before they could bicker even more. As he watched their retreating backs, Keiji lifted his head to look at the lights blinking above, smiling as he thought of the series of unfortunate events that had brought them all together on the court.

“Mum. Dad. Are you having fun in heaven? I hope you are, because we’re having a lot of fun here on earth.” As his gaze met Bokuto’s smile, he slowly let the man take his hand and tug him forward, letting him lead him onto the court that started their journey to the top.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally!!! I feel so happy to have managed to write this story and share it with you guys! Its been a blast writing it!!! A few more chapters to my other stories and I will be away from the Fanfiction writing scene for the time being. 
> 
> Thanks to all of you who commented on this story and left kudos! I hoped I did these cuties justice in this story!!!! I had to write that they got engaged in the end since heck, they're BokuAka. They need to be together forever!!! Also you might see some SakuAtsu and OsaSuna going on if you squinted in here fufu (some of my favourite pairings I just can't leave out of the picture). 
> 
> Ave atque vale and until we meet again, sayonara.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this fic!
> 
> Come yell at me on Twitter or Tumblr @runningfromrealitytoanime.
> 
> Please leave some comments and kudos! They really make my day!


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